The Secret Life of an Accelerated Teenager
by butterfly collective
Summary: Alexis could have sworn Kristina was a little girl when she put her to bed but now she's an unruly teenager. What's a mom to do and is there a cure?
1. Chapter 1

While out sick this week, I caught up on_ General Hospital_ for the first time in years and couldn't believe all the changes. So I got creative and did some fanfiction for fun. I hope you like it and I don't know where it's going at all but it was interesting. I tried to answer the question, what do you do when your child wakes up years older than they were when they went to bed. Do you go along with it? Do you faint? How would a logical yet slightly high-strung character like Alexis react?

* * *

Alexis walked in the living room and right into her daughter, Kristina. Her eyes widened as she realized that something mysterious had struck during the night while everyone in the house had been asleep. The night before, Alexis had tucked in a six-year-old girl exhausted after a day spent in the park flying her kite with her older half-sister Sam.

But what stood in front of her, wasn't a child but a teenager.

Kristina's long ebony locks had been cut off and styled during the night and she now wore them like soft curls reaching her shoulders. Make up adorned her usually freshly scrubbed face, from mascara outlining her long lashes to a soft shade of red painting her lips. Ears, double pierced and was that a belly ring flashing on the bare midriff of Kristina's tank top? What happened to her daughter? Who did this to her and where did she get these new clothes?

Alexis nearly passed out at the sight in front of her and when she felt the familiar sensation of breathlessness slip through her body, she sat down quickly and began taking long, well-practiced deep breaths that she had learned in Yoga. Kristina or at least what she believed to be her daughter paid no mind to her. She plopped on the couch and put the earphones on her iPod and began moving to the beat of some silent song.

_Where's a paper bag when you need it_, Alexis thought frantically.

Saving that, where was her best frenemy Diane when she needed her? Oh that's right, Diane had gone off with her boy toy Max on a Las Vegas junket. Business not pleasure, Diane had told Alexis, but she'd winked her eye.

With a few deep breaths, her vision sharpened once again and her daughter reappeared in front of her. She had to think of something to say to her.

_Just breathe._

She pasted a forced smile on her face.

"Kristina…honey," she said, "You look so…."

Kristina hadn't heard her mother, so wrapped up in her music. Alexis moved closer, slowly still not sure that this actually was her daughter. Perhaps, this was yet another trick pulled on her by Helena Cassadine to drive her insane. But how could she pull something like this off?

Suddenly Kristina jumped off the couch and started dancing. Slow dancing, gyrating enough so that it made her mother blush. And she spun around finally in mid-beat and smacked right into her shocked mother.

Balancing herself to keep from falling, Kristina flipped her hair back and looked up.

"Mom…"

Alexis backed away .

"Is there anything wrong, Mom," Kristina said, "Because you're acting kinda strange."

Alexis smiled slowly.

"There's nothing wrong with Mommy, sweetheart," she said, "You just…I didn't know you were so... talented."

Kristina looked skeptical.

"I didn't make the cheer leading squad," she said, "At least not the A squad."

"That's too bad honey," a perplexed Alexis said, "but you could do something else, like run for student council."

Kristina stuck a finger down her throat and made a retching sound.

"Oh Mother please," she said, "Student government's for dweebs."

That silenced Alexis on several fronts. First, because Alexis had been president of her high school class in Switzerland so essentially in a roundabout way her own daughter had said she wasn't cool. The other being that she couldn't grasp the fact that her daughter who had just barely started elementary school not too long ago had in this reality, begun junior high.

"Have you had any breakfast yet," Alexis asked, still sitting on the couch trying deep breathing exercises.

Kristina shrugged.

"I got to blow," she said, "Lulu promised to pick me up."

Lulu? Oh, Luke's daughter. God, she never thought that the two girls who had a decade between them would be carpooling together. But then a memory grabbed her of a day not too long, okay maybe a couple of years ago when she had been in the hospital visiting Luke's daughter when she was dying of some sort of disease and needed some sort of transplant from a family member to save her life. Alexis remembered that it was her own nephew Nikolas who had been Laura's son that she had with Stavros Cassedine who had been hidden away from her. But Lulu had been a little girl back then. Had that much time really passed?

"But aren't you going to say goodbye," Alexis stood up.

Kristina tossed her back and gave her mother a wave before leaving the house. Alex sank back on the couch, her head spinning over the scene that had just played out. Who had taken her daughter away in the middle of the night and replaced her with an impostor. She almost reached for her phone to call Commissioner Matt Scorpio of the Port Charles Police Department to file a missing person's report but then thought, the lovely girl standing in front of her did look like her daughter would…if she were a teenager..which she now…Alexis was beginning to think she were crazy. Then a horrible thought hit her and she jumped off the couch to go check on her younger daughter Molly. She opened the bedroom door slowly, half expecting to see Molly getting dressed to go to Elementary school but instead, she breathed a sigh of relief and put her hand on her chest when she saw that Molly who had been a toddler when put to bed last night would wake up one. Still rattled, Alex walked past the liquor cabinet and shook her head before walking into the kitchen to boil herself some tea. While she waited for the kettle to boil, she reached for the phone.

* * *

Kristina climbed into Lulu's jeep and they left the house. As they sped down towards Port Charles Jr. High, Kristina searched through her purse for a cigarette and began to light up. Lulu turned around and wagged her finger.

"Don't you smell up my car," she said, "And what would your mother think if she knew you smoked, with her having had lung cancer?"

Kristina shrugged.

"She looked like she didn't even recognize me this morning," she said, "I wonder if it's the belly ring."

Lulu's jaw dropped.

"You went out and got it," she said.

Kristina nodded happily.

"It's like so cool," she said, "All the hot guys will like me."

Lulu turned on a side street.

"Any one in particular?"

Kristina's face flushed a bit.

"Maybe," she said, smiling.

"Does 'maybe' have a name," Lulu asked.

"Maybe," Kristina said, her smile turning into a mischievous look.

Lulu sighed.

"You're keeping it to yourself for now," she said, "That's cool."

Kristina reached in her purse for her lip gloss.

"My mom sure wouldn't be happy if she found out," she said, "She'd ground me or even worse send me to stay with my father."

"Sonny," Lulu said, "What's so bad about that? If you don't mind being surrounded by body guards."

"His crazy ex-wife keeps coming around and all his girlfriends," Kristina said, "I wonder how Mikey and Morgan survived it."

"Well, Mikey's recovering from his experimental brain surgery at General Hospital," Lulu said.

"Yeah I know," Kristina said, "I was going to go visit him after school but Bridezella's always there."

"You mean Claudia," Lulu said, laughing, "fitting nickname for her. I wonder how she snagged your father anyway."

Kristina felt like she should know and didn't. Like she missed something.

* * *

Alex dialed up Diane and caught her at the casino, playing a game of blackjack.

"What the hell are you doing calling me at this hour," Diane grumbled," I'm on a winning streak and Max is almost done with his business meeting so he's going to join me."

"It's Kristina," Alexis said, "She got older."

"What do you mean," Diane said, "Have you been hitting the scotch again…"

"No, no," Alexis said, "I know it sounds crazy but last night I put to bed a little girl and woke up this morning to find a teenager in my living room."

Diane paused.

"Oh that," she said.

"What do you mean, 'oh that'," Alexis demanded, "This is very serious."

"No it's not," Diane said, "It's just accelerated aging syndrome."

Alexis nearly dropped the phone.

"What?"

"It's not a medical condition," Diane said, "It's just that happens from time to time. I mean look at Michael, just one year ago, he was just starting puberty. Now, he's out of it and is a full-blooded rebellious teenager."

"Really," Alexis said, "So you think this is a genetic trait that might run in Sonny's family. That it's his fault?"

Diane sighed. Alexis could be so thick sometimes.

"No, it happens to other kids," Diane explained, "There are growth spurts and there are growth spurts."

"But I don't look old enough to have a daughter Kristina's age," Alexis said.

"Of course you don't," Diane soothed, "but these things just happen and as a parent, you're going to have to adjust."

Alexis ran her hand through her hair.

"But that means I'll have to get her a brand new wardrobe, redecorate her room…"

Alexis," Diane said patiently, "Go in her bedroom, look in her closets, and you'll find that your daughter isn't the only thing that's changed overnight."

"Oh my God," Alexis said, "I don't know whether to be repulsed by what you just said, or grateful that I won't have to max out another credit card."

Diane laughed.

"Oh I'd start hiding those credit cards if I were you," she said, "and locking up the liquor cabinet."

Alexis paused.

"I have a child-safety lock on it," she said, "Where am I going to find one that keeps out teenagers?"

Diane sighed, eager to get back to the blackjack dealer.

"You're going to have to figure out away," she said, "especially if Kristina's mind works anywhere like mine when I was her age."

"Damn, I'm going to have to do what I don't want to do and that's talk to her father about what's happened to our daughter."

"That would almost be worth coming back to PC to witness," Diane said, "but the dealer's calling. Got to go."

Alexis stared at her phone. Then the doorbell rang and though she didn't know it, her trouble had just began.

* * *

Kristina arrived at school and waited until Lulu had left, then she began walking in the opposite direction towards the seedier side of Port Charles. She walked past the pawn shops, smoke shops and watering holes until she found the one she wanted. She flipped her hair back and walked inside.

Coleman looked up from where he tended bar and started heading towards her.

"Honey, I told you that you can't come waltzing in here," he said, "Do you want me to lose my license?"

"Of course not," she said, looking around, "Besides, don't you bar owners work out some deal with the local cops to look the other way?"

Coleman smiled.

"Now that's nothing for you to be talking about," he said, "and besides, you can buy off a cop or two but that Mac Scorpio's as square as they come."

"Yeah, I noticed," Kristina said, stopping by the pool table, running her hands over the pool cues.

Coleman noticed her interest.

"Do you like to play," she said.

"My sister Sam taught me," she said, "but I was a little kid then."

He laughed.

"Time does sure fly, doesn't it," he said, "It seems like just yesterday, you were knee high."

"I felt like I was a little kid forever," she said, rolling her eyes, "just one endless rewind of a Nickelodeon version of _Groundhog Day_."

Suddenly, the door opened and he walked in. Kristina forgot all about her growing pains or the pool table for a moment.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2--- Here's another chapter of the GH fanfiction. Thanks very much for the comments and I hope you enjoy reading.

* * *

Kristina's mouth hung open as the door opened and in came, Damien Spinelli, alias the Jackal, the genius who had taught her everything she needed to know about hacking into computer systems. She looked at him twice because he looked much different than the last time she could remember having seen him. He had combed his normally unruly hair back and looked like he had been hitting the weights, if not every day, maybe twice a week. Looking down, she saw the portrait that stood in front of her had been completed with matching socks! What had happened that she missed?

He looked equally surprised to see her.

"Lil Krissy," he said, with a smile on his face, "Interesting to see you here in an establishment of questionable repute."

"Hi Spinelli," she said, letting him pass her.

He looked at her again and frowned.

"I suspect I won't be able to call you Lil anymore," he said, "So we'll have to come up with a new name for you."

"Sure," Kristina said, putting her hands in her pockets, "Whatever."

He sized her up from her high heels to the twin sparkled clips she wore in her hair.

"You look so much older," he said, "Have you gone to The Fashionista and had a makeover?"

Kristina sneered.

"I wouldn't go near that witch if you paid me," she said, "Besides her clothes aren't all that."

Spinelli rubbed his fingers over his mouth.

"So what are you doing here," he asked, "Shouldn't fair young ones like yourself be in school at this time?"

Kristina shrugged.

"School is so over-rated," she said, "If I keep going, I'll end up like my mother."

"And that is a bad thing," Spinelli said.

Okay, so it was true Alexis came off as high-strung at times and downright neurotic at others, but it was nothing that a few minutes kicking back and smoking happy weed wouldn't fix. Not that he dealt in that kind of business anymore. Hacking and cyber espionage was a much more honorable line of work, not to mention lucrative. Plus it attracted more attractive and sexy women like Fair Maximista into his galaxy.

Kristina looked away from his probing glance.

"Nooooo," she said, "but my mother's so not cool. She wears these dorky suits all the time and hardly goes out and when she does, it's always with the craziest man in PC."

Spinelli couldn't argue with that either. Alexis' dating history read like a manual of _Mobsters, Terrorists and the Women who Love Them_. If Alexis ever chose to write that manual to help women everywhere avoid making her relationship mistakes, she probably would never have to practice law again and could live off the royalties not to mention the fellowship for winning the first joint Nobel Liberature and Nobel Peace Prize.

"Let's see, there were Dark Lancing the Younger, the Demented One and The Godfather, not necessarily in that order….and I get your point."

Kristina sighed and reached for her purse to refresh her lip gloss.

"Do you see what I have to live with," she said.

"Surely it's not that bad," Spinelli said, "but if you're not going to go to school, what will you do, Fair Truant?"

Kristina really hadn't given it much thought. All her planning had gone into figuring out whether to turn left or right when Lulu had let her out in front of the school.

"I hadn't really thought about it much," she said, "I could become a pool shark."

"Do you play the game," he asked.

"I don't know…," she said, "I suppose I would have to try it first. I guess if I have learned to play, it will soon come to me."

Coleman walked over to them.

"Are you and your jailbait girlfriend going to buy anything," he asked.

Kristina felt like kicking him.

"I'm not his girlfriend," she said.

Coleman raised his brows.

"And who are you looking for," he said.

Spinelli took a step backward.

"I'm looking for Mrs. Robinson…I mean The Colloquial Cousin…"

Coleman looked totally lost.

"Who the hell are you talking about," he said.

Spinelli cleared his throat.

"I believe she goes under the stage name of Olivia Falconeri."

* * *

Alexis opened the door thinking her day couldn't get any worse. What stood at the door put that thought away in the category of wishful thinking.

"Hi love," the man said, "Missed me?"

She hit him on the chest. He caught her hand during her second attempt to inflict serious bodily harm on him.

"Is that anyway to greet your long-lost love," he said, soothingly.

Alexis did whatever she did when a charming, attractive man with sociopathic leanings looked at her, she grew all flustered.

"I… Well, what's your name anyway," she said, "I don't know whether to call you Craig or Jerry or Ted Bundy…."

He grabbed her hand and started stroking it.

"You can call me whatever you want, my love," he said, looking into her eyes, "I have missed you."

Alexis snorted.

"Yeah right," she said, "You tried to seduce my daughter and that sent me straight into therapy because you're not the only man in my life who ever tried to do that."

Jerry/Craig got a distasteful look on his face.

"Do not compare me to that gutter rodent Ric," he said, "I don't seduce daughters on the living room rugs of their own homes. I have much more style than that."

Alexis tried to move away from him.

"Like that matters, except to a amoral criminal like you," she muttered.

"Besides, Sam was a diversion, a means to an end," he said, "I only tried to kill her. We never slept together."

Alexis tried to hold her temper.

"Oh that's reassuring," she said, "Thanks for splitting that hair for me."

He smiled.

"Your welcome, my darling," he said, "Now do you want to pick up where we last left up?"

She scratched her head.

"I don't even remember what we were doing," she said, "It's been a while."

He put his face next to her hear.

"Would you like me to whisper…."

She spun around, pulled out of his grasp, opened the front door and pushed him outside of it before slamming it shut again. All in one series of fluid movements that would do her Tai Chi teacher proud. She brushed herself off and then went to pour herself a drink, waiting for the next worthless suitor to come begging for a second chance at her front door. She looked at her watch. It was only 10 a.m., plenty of time for her ex-husband Ric to show up.

* * *

Coleman looked at Spinelli incredulously.

"You're looking for Olivia," he said, "that luscious dame can have any man in town she wants."

"I know that, Shaggy One but she's got a yen for the younger man," Spinelli said.

Coleman looked at Spinelli doubtfully.

"Not that young," he said, "I heard she's taken up with that Johnny Zacchara."

Spinelli nodded.

"I heard that too," he said, "It will never last. The Unworthy Mob Prince cannot please thee."

Kristina watched them totally perplexed.

"I hadn't heard that he had a new girlfriend," she said, "But he's a hunk of burning love…"

Both Coleman and Spinelli turned around to look at her.

Coleman pointed his finger.

"Didn't I sell you a Shirley Temple last week," he said, "I could have sworn…"

Spinelli looked at the bartender gravely.

"I could have sworn as well," he said, "But my little half-pint hacker has grown much, like a bamboo shoot."

"Well, she's still too young to hang out in my establishment," he said, "Now if she shows up next week and she's 18, then it's a different story."

Spinelli agreed.

"Come on, we'd better leave," he said, "and take our business elsewhere."

They let the bar and Coleman breathed a sigh of relief and got back down to calculating some Vegas side bets.

Maxie walked up to Spinelli and Kristina, wearing a pout on her face.

"My Fair Maximista," Spinelli said, smiling, "What brings you in my universe?"

She pecked him on the cheek.

"I've just finished some shopping," she said, showing her bags, "I was looking at some new lines of swim suits for Kate and I think I'm going to have to head to the big city to look there because I can't be seen walking around in PC skank suits."

"I ran into Kristina in a bar," Spinelli said, "and we're looking for something to do."

Maxie looked both ways down the street.

"You'd better watch out for her parents," she said, "Sonny will put a hit out on you if you touch his daughter and Alexis will just kill you and skulk around town posing as her dead sister to get off."

Spinelli shook his head.

"I'm not romantically bonded to Kristina," he said, "She just seemed lost."

Kristina folded her arms.

"I'm not lost," she said, "I'm bored. Doesn't anything ever happen in this town?"

Both Maxie and Spinelli looked at each other.

"Do you want to handle that My One True Love," he said.

She shrugged.

"Maybe you'd better sit down and tell her as soon as you have a day or so to kill."

Kristina's interest piqued.

"So PC really isn't dullsville?"

Spinelli took a deep breath.

"It can be a most exciting place," he said, "Come and I will show you."

* * *

Alex whipped out her cell phone and called Kristina's father, leaving a message that she needed to talk to him about their daughter. It was an important matter and couldn't wait. Then she changed her clothes, left Molly with the nameless baby sitter and took off out of the house on an errand of mercy. Before she got too far, she turned the corner and collided with one of the last people in town she wanted to see.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3---Another chapter of this fanfiction. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments. Not sure where it's going yet. I noticed a lot of ahem, changes to GH this past week including more new characters. I'm glad that Alexis is getting more airtime. Nancy Lee Grahn is a great actress.

* * *

"Oh it's you," Alex said, after dusting her business suit off.

"Great to see you too," Ric said, "In fact, you look quite pretty today."

"Oh shut up, Ric," she said, "And no, I'm not giving you full custody of Molly not in this lifetime"

He looked a bit taken aback.

"That's not why I'm in this section of town. I'm not trying to give you a hard time," he said, "I'm looking for..."

"Claudia," Alexis said.

Ric looked up at her surprised. She rolled her eyes at her ex-husband.

"Oh Ric seriously, the whole town knows you're sleeping together," Alexis said, "I just hope Sonny doesn't find out."

"He won't," Ric said, confidently, "He's got enough on his plate keeping him busy, too much so to know what his latest wife is up to or whose bed she's in."

Alexis just stared at him. Some things never changed and one of them was standing right in front of her. This ongoing vendetta between the two half brothers would probably be still going on strong in the afterlife when both were dead and their bodies lay buried in some Port Charles crypt. Having had relationships and children with both of them, she had learned through the years that most of the energy spent in this ridiculous squabble came from Ric's end as Sonny seemed little more than irritated at his younger brother's shenanigans most days in comparison. Besides, Sonny's obsession with Carly took precedence over everything else.

Alexis just looked at Ric and nodded slowly. It was so much easier to do that these days than get drawn into another argument over whether the sex had been better with Ric or his brother. She knew if she ever answered that, someone's feelings would get hurt.

"You're probably right," she told Ric, "His son just had brain surgery and woke up from his coma, angry at the entire world except Bridezilla. Both her and his ex-wife are pregnant and have probably driven him to drink again already."

"Not to mention his trying to leave the importing business and then being drawn back in," Ric admitted.

"That's partly your fault," Alexis reminded him, "You baited the trap and he stepped into it."

"Now Alexis, you know my brother is certainly smart enough to have avoided it if he really wanted to stay out of the business."

"I don't have any sympathy for him if he does go back to playing mobster," Alexis said, "He knows what the cost will be. He should be reminded every time he visits his oldest son."

"It's like a drug he can't quit," Ric said, "I think we both know that, having had to compete with it."

Alexis took a good hard look at him, surprised at the stroke of honesty in his words. Not a quality you saw or heard of much from Ric.

"How do you know what it felt like, Ric?"

"What are you talking about," Ric said, feeling the heat.

"At least I got away and made a clean break," she said, "At least until I got together with Craig…or is it Jerry…"

Ric shook his head.

"That guy's pure psycho," he said, "You can't put him and Sonny in the same category."

"What about him and you," Alexis said, "After all, you did chain Carly to a wall in a panic room and tried to kill Liz at least once."

He shook his head again.

"I was under a lot of stress," he said.

Alexis laughed.

"Like you were when you had sex with my daughter in my house," she said, "You never take responsibility for anything…like you're probably doing with Sonny's latest wife."

He did a double take.

"What are you talking about?"

Alexis held up her hand.

"Now tell me if I got this straight. I know that my good friend, Jax fathered Carly's baby," Alexis started, while waggling her finger.

"And," he said, not liking where this was going.

"But what about Claudia's bun in the oven," she said, "Are you its father?"

Ric nearly shrank beneath her gaze but collected himself.

"What…what would make you ask a question like that," he said.

Alexis sighed.

"I know you Ric," she said, "and I know that any woman that's in Sonny's orbit, you want for yourself."

Ric frowned.

"That's not true," he said, "Not entirely true. What can I say, my brother and I have the same taste in women."

Alexis snorted.

"It has nothing to do with 'taste'," she said.

Ric knew he had to change the subject fast.

"So where are you off to," he asked.

"I'm off on an errand," she said, "which is none of your business."

"So you want to keep what you're doing a mystery from me," he guessed.

She looked annoyed.

"No, it's just that I don't go telling my ex-husbands my business," she retorted.

"You tell your first husband everything," Ric said.

"That's different," she said, "He's my best friend and like I said, I didn't watch him rolling on the living room rug with my daughter."

Ric looked away.

"Oh that again," he said, "Alexis I really think it's time for you to put that aside and move on."

"Oh give it a rest," Alexis said, "I don't spend my days fantasizing about getting you back if that's what you're thinking."

"Oh no, I wouldn't presume as much," he said, "You've moved on to higher quality men like Jerry."

She shook her head.

"That was pretty low, Ric," she said, "but at least I didn't have to chain him to my bed."

"Ouch," he said.

Alexis looked at him.

"Maybe we should just end this conversation while we're ahead and just move on," she said.

Ric stared at her for several moments.

"Agreed," he said, "Have a nice life."

They both went their separate ways.

* * *

Kristina gasped when she saw the room that Spinelli had brought her to see. It looked a lot like a studio apartment with some semblance of resembling a residence but everywhere, there were pieces of equipment which Kristina couldn't identify but that looked important.

"What's all this," she said, touching the equipment with her finger.

Spinelli smiled.

"It's my latest project," he said, "So I can better assist Stone Cold with his missions of intrigue and mystery."

Kristina's eyes narrowed.

"Stone Cold…that's Jason Morgan, right?"

Spinelli nodded and Kristina's eyes brightened and her face broke into a huge smile.

"Why does my mention of him please you so?"

She struggled to control herself, dropping the mask of bored nonchalance that she wore daily back over her face.

"I just think he's kind of cool," she said, "in a broodingly handsome, mysterious kind of way."

"But you don't know him that well…"

Kristina sighed.

"But I've seen him," she said, "Every day when I go to school, I see him through the window of the diner eating his breakfast, usually alone…and after school, I see him playing pool at Coleman's bar."

"Oh…I see," he said, "You've been doing quite a bit of recognizance surveillance on Stone Cold. Is he aware of the depths of your interest?"

Kristina blushed and turned away.

"Oh no…no…I've never even really spoken to him," she said, "Just looked."

Spinelli nodded.

"He does attract many women in Port Charles but he's broken a few hearts," he said, "What about other guys your own age at school?"

Kristina snorted.

"They're all boys," she said, "I'm looking for a man."

Spinelli's eyes widened.

"Perhaps you should give this some more thought," he said, "Have you talked to your mother about it?"

He knew as soon as he had given that advice, he had said the wrong thing. Kristina looked horrified.

"You've got be kidding me," she said, "as if I could ever talk to my mother about anything having to do with love or men or…sex. She's so uptight."

Spinelli wrinkled his forehead.

"She's not always like that," he said, "In fact in my experience she can be pretty laid back and easy going on a wide variety of topics."

"What did you do, smoke weed with her," she said, then saw the look on his face, "Hey, that was a joke."

Spinelli wisely chose another angle of discussion.

"Well is there any other member of the female persuasion that you could talk to about this," he asked.

Kristina looked deep in thought, and then shook her head.

"No, they're all competition," she said, "the pool of guys in PC is neither wide nor deep."

"I see," Spinelli said, not sure to be flattered or offended by her droll observation, "Well what if you talk to My fair Maximista…"

"You're what?"

Spinelli smiled.

"Maxie," he said, "She knows a lot about these kinds of things from the feminine perspective."

Kristina nodded.

"Okay, whatever," she said, "I'll give her a try but she better be cool."

"Maxie transcends coolness," Spinelli said, dreamily, "She is her own force of nature."

* * *

Alex had a bad headache. If she hadn't run into two of her exes in one day, she might have been more concerned. She walked into the diner to buy some coffee in the off-chance case that she was suffering from caffeine withdrawal. While inside, she saw Maxie sitting at a table and felt guilty because every time she saw her, she felt that the wrong Jones daughter had been murdered by the latest in a long chain of PC serial killers, whose mug shots lined one entire wall inside the Port Charles Police Department. Not that she ever said that out loud, but she never could shake that belief that the serial killer had made an error in judgment.

She walked up to order her coffee just when Maxie went to pick up her croissant sandwich.

"Hi Maxie," Alexis said, "How are you doing today?"

Maxie smiled back, gritting her teeth.

"Fine Alexis," she said, "Just finishing some reports for Kate so they'll be ready when she's back in town."

"That's nice," she said, "I'm sure Kate feels fortunate to have you as an employee."

Maxie shrugged.

"I do my best," she said, "but there's still so much to learn."

Alexis smiled.

"I'm sure you're a quick study."

Maxie thanked the cook for her sandwich and started to walk back to her table.

"So how's Kristina doing," she said, "I saw her today. She's really growing up quickly."

Alexis sighed.

"Too quickly," she said, "I could have sworn that only yesterday, she was a little girl."

"Time passes quickly," Maxie said, "My mother when she's around often says the same thing. I just chalked up her bewilderment to the fact that at best, she's an absentee mom."

"I'm sure she loves you," Alexis said, "but you know it's strange, I remember so clearly when you got your heart transplant and you've grown up so much."

That was pretty much the truth in more ways than one. Maxie's childhood had vanished along with her surgical scar.

"Why thank you Alexis," Maxie said, "I'm sure you don't have to be too concerned about Kristina. She's just going through what a lot of teenagers do. The whole rebellion thing."

"I noticed that this morning," Alexis said, "along with the belly ring that wasn't there yesterday."

Maxie shrugged.

"That's pretty harmless," she said, "as long as it's done right."

"It doesn't seem harmless," Alexis said, "Of course it's my fault, I have been so busy working…and doing other things that I'm sure will come to me…"

"Alexis…"

"What," she said, "I'm sorry to keep going on like this."

"Kristina is a smart kid who's just experimenting and testing her boundaries," Maxie said, "If you push or pull too hard, then she'll pull even further away and run off and do something really stupid. Trust me on that one."

Alexis nodded.

"Thank you for the advice," she said, as she sipped her coffee wondering if this nightmare of a day would wind up being exactly that, a bad dream.

* * *

Kristina wandered around Spinelli's room as he explained the different pieces of equipment to her and how to use it.

"You spend a lot of time doing this spy work," she said.

"Surveillance yes," he corrected, "and other forms of information gathering."

She laughed.

"You mean spying."

He shrugged.

"My mother would love to get her hands on most of this stuff just to keep tabs on me," Kristina said.

"I…."

The door opened and in walked a dream. Kristina's eyes widened. Spinelli smiled widely.

"Stone Cold…"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4---The latest in this fanfiction. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments!

* * *

Stone Cold or Jason Morgan, as he was known to most PC residents on both sides of the law strode in the room and looked at both Spinnelli and Kristina as if they were insects. That's often how Jason looked at people but no one in town took it personally. They chalked it up to that mysterious unnamed brain malady he had suffered when he still lived as Jason Quartermaine, aspiring medical student and favored son. Still, there were others out there who whispered that Jason had changed virtually overnight from a poster pinup to an often blank-faced and surly mobster because of a bad acid trip. Whatever had been done to him at the cusp of adulthood had left him a mop of hair which stuck straight up and never moved, even during the PC tornado of 2007 and the PC typhoons of 2006 and 2008.

Kristina marveled at Jason's hair, just like she loved everything about him, from his killer boots to his sexy if still unmoving hair. She couldn't figure out why yesterday she hadn't seem to notice him much yet today, tremors of anticipation flushed her cheeks just from him entering the room. She felt weak-kneed almost as if she had to sit down but she felt like she'd faint if she did.

He checked out the room, with a watchful eye as he did every time he entered a room. A habit acquired from years working on and off as Sonny's enforcer. Sonny had taken an angry bitter Jason under his wing and channeled the loss of his moral center and a lot of energy into creating the perfect remorseless killer. Over the years, he and Sonny were like most old married couples and until recently, they had boasted one of the most longest lasting and stable relationships in PC, rivaling any marriage but cracks had appeared in the veneer of the cornerstone of their relationship.

Kristina didn't know the back story of the man standing in front of her. She just knew she had to have him, though she wasn't clear what "have" meant. Perhaps Maxie would be nice enough to explain it to her because she knew a lot about guys leaving a string of broken hearts all across the town.

Her mouth felt filled with cotton and she found herself gazing into Jason's killer blue eyes for longer than was comfortable. Still, she couldn't look away.

"Hi Kristina," he said.

She jolted her head up to look at him, pushing the strands away with his hand.

"…Yes?"

She kicked herself inside for not saying something less lame than that.

"How are you doing," Jason said.

She swept a remaining strand away from her face.

"Fine…how about you?"

"Business has been good," he said, then his eyes narrowed," What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

She froze in his gaze. She had heard that there was no point in not being truthful to the person called the human lie detector but she couldn't come right out and say it.

"I suppose so," she said.

"Then why aren't you there?"

She bit her lip.

"The other kids are so lame," she said, "They seem like such children now."

Jason's gaze appeared inpenetratable.

"You were one yourself not too long ago," Jason said, "You haven't been a teenager for very long at all."

Spinnelli listened in fascination as pretty much anything that Stone Cold did fascinated him.

"What brought you to my place," he asked.

Jason turned to look at him, ignoring the question.

"Why are you aiding and abetting Kristina ditching school?"

Spinnelli didn't know what to say.

"I met up with her at Coleman's place this morning," he said, "I thought my place might be a better location for her than the bar while I try to tell her how important it is to go to school."

Kristina rolled her eyes. Jason nodded thoughtfully.

"Then I suggest you wrap up your efforts and escort Kristina to her school," Jason said.

Spinnelli nodded.

"Mission accepted," he said.

"Kristina scowled but then smiled when Jason looked her way.

Jason turned back to the business he had with Spinnelli.

"Did you get that job done for me," he asked.

"Spinnelli nodded and reached in a drawer underneath a pile of papers for a folder. He handed it to Jason who accepted it without looking at it. With just a nod of his head at both of them, Jason left the room, closing the door behind him.

"What a guy," Kristina said.

Spinnelli looked at the teenaged girl and sighed. The aura which was Jason inspired similar feelings in many individuals of the fairer sex. If he could break down Jason into a computerized formula and bottle it into some software, he could make a fortune selling it.

* * *

Alexis picked up the phone and hoped that Diane was available to pick up her call. It rang a few times which upped Alexis' already high stress level.

"Hello Alexis, this had better be important because I'm on a killer streak here," an affectionately irate voice said.

Alexis took a deep breath to center herself.

"It's just been one of those days where Dante's inferno would look pretty good right now."

"That bad?"

"First I told you about my daughter, right? About how I tucked her into bed and she was a little girl and now she's a surly teenager with a belly ring."

"Yes you did," Diane said patiently.

"Well now I just found out from someone on the street that I slept with the mayor of PC and I have no memory of it at all!"

Diane sighed.

"Were you drinking," she asked.

"No, not more than usual."

"Were you toking the 420 with that computer nerd again?"

Alexis laughed.

"Oh no, that was a onetime thing," she said, "I'm off drugs for good."

"So what's this about having sex with the mayor," Diane said, "Were you engaging in another risk taking exercise to prove something to yourself?"

"Oh no," Alexis insisted," I never slept with the mayor. I think I'd remember unless the sex was really that bad."

Diane dismissed that theory.

"No, he's pretty skilled…actually."

"And how would you know," Alexis asked.

"That's in the category of nondisclosure Alexis," Diane said.

"But you just disclosed it," Alexis insisted, "What was it like?"

"You should know my dear," Diane said, "You slept with him."

"No no," Alexis said, "The last guy I had sex with was Jerry…Craig or whoever and I definitely remember that though I'd love to forget it."

"We all would," Diane said, "but he hangs around like a bad odor."

"Speaking of which," Alexis said, "He dropped by today wanting some sort of reconciliation."

Diane sighed.

"What did you do Alexis," she said.

"I did a few of those defensive moves you taught me and shoved him out the door," she said.

Diane smiled on her end.

"Good for you, Alexis," she said, "Let's hope he stays away."

Alexis agreed but had her doubts.

* * *

Kristina walked into the classroom and sat in the back. All the kids looked totally unfamiliar to her. As did the teacher. She droned the teacher's voice out and started doodling in her notebook about Jason. He was definitely the most attractive looking man in town. Why didn't she notice that yesterday? She didn't think about much except that for some reason, this morning her attraction to him hit her like a lightning bolt. Not that it really mattered. Kristina was in love.

* * *

Spinnelli ran into Maxie at the diner where she still sat working on her reports. He brought himself a soda and joined her.

"How things going with you and Kristina," she asked.

"Lil' Krissy is back in school as we speak," he said, "though she's certainly not little anymore.

Maxie shrugged.

"So she had a growth spurt," she said, "It happened to me."

"How is your work with The Glacial One going," Spinelli said.

Maxie made a face.

"It's taken me all morning," she said, "and I still don't have the damn thing finished."

"Maybe you've been working too hard and need a break," Spinelli said.

She shook her head.

"I don't think I can take a break until I have this report done," Maxie said, "Yeah I know my working for Kate is a ruse but I like the fashion industry. I can see myself working in it some day."

"For you, all is possible," Spinelli said, "You can do anything you put your mind to, my fair Maximista."

She smiled.

"Why thank you Spinelli," she said, kissing him.

He swooned from the sensation of her lips.

"So anything else happened," Maxie asked.

"Stone Cold came by to pick up the report I did for him," Spinelli said.

"Did he have much to say," Maxie asked.

Spinelli frowned.

"Something unusual did happen," he said, "He seemed to notice a difference in Kristina that perhaps I and others have missed."

Maxie leaned forward.

"What do you mean," she asked.

"He seemed to remember her being a little girl only a short while ago," he said.,

She laughed.

"So what's odd about that," she said, "all teenagers began life as little girls and time often seems to fly when you look back at it."

He shook his head.

"No, this seemed different than what you or might do," Spinelli said, "I think Jason might have sensed a temporal difference."

She put up her hands.

"Now, you're sounding like science fiction," she said.

"Science yes, but fiction, not at all," he said, "I have read much documentation about temporal changes and how they affect people."

Maxie rolled her eyes.

"I saw a few X-Files episodes…"

He frowned.

"You don't believe me," he said, "Why don't you have faith?"

"Because this is a bit of a stretch, don't you think," she said.

"Wait a minute," Spinelli said, "Weren't there vampires once in this town?"

"Urban myth," Maxie said, "from some people at GH who probably hit the medicine cabinet too many times."

"We shall see," Spinelli said, "Or I shall see, I intend to look into this matter myself."

She nodded.

"You do that and then report back to me what you find," she said.

He resigned himself that his girlfriend didn't believe in what he said, while she continued to talk about what a terrible person Kate was and two tables away, someone listened very closely.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5--- Here's the latest installment in the GH fanfiction. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments!

* * *

Kristina wasn't much of a doodler, in fact she really didn't like art, but as she looked down halfway through some class, math maybe, at her notebook she saw scribbles of hearts and flowers surrounding her name and that of Jason Morgan.

She reacted in shock at first and then her eyes flitted quickly around the class to see if anyone had noticed her artwork. But everyone else remained either preoccupied in the assignment or in making the classmate in closest proximity to them absolutely miserable. Kristina just sighed, and covered up her notebook with her hand.

Mercifully the bell rang and she grabbed her things and ran out of the classroom, where she quickly collided with Johnny Zacchara, one of the hottest kids in school. Granted, Johnny was also the oldest kid in the high school having flunked several grades and being forced by the local judge to return to school to make up all the classes that he had missed. Still, he spent most of his days ditching school and hanging out with his latest girlfriend, Olivia, PC's local cougar of choice since Felicia retired back to Texas and Tracy took herself off the market by marrying Luke. Kristina wondered what he saw in the older woman. Sure she was hot for someone whose best years were clearly behind her and she dressed in dresses cut to here but why would any hot young stud like Johnny pick someone older than dust in the first place?

Johnny finally noticed her after he made sure that none of his body parts had been damaged in his collision with Kristina. Satisfied that even every hair stood in its proper place, he finally took a look at the teenager and did a double take. It looked like she had grown six inches overnight and some inches in other places as well. His face nearly flushed for thinking about Kristina in that way. After all, not long ago she had only been about six years old. How quickly time flied whether or not you were having fun but he had to stop thinking about her as anything but the little girl she had been just yesterday. If her father had got wind that any older guys were lusting after his princess, there would be hell to pay and any prospective Romeos would be crawling home with bullets lodged in their knees and a couple of other choice places. Johnny took pride in his body the way it was, knowing that it was his only chance of working his way up PC's brutal food chain so naturally he didn't want to do anything to endanger its pristine condition.

"So doll face, what are you doing here," Johnny said, "I thought you were at PC Elementary."

She glared at him from beneath her thick mascara.

"That's for babies," she said, "And I'm a young woman now. I just started attending this school and it's already boring me to distraction."

He held up his hands to ward off her defensiveness but Kristina scowled knowing he was just mocking her, treating her like the child she was not.

"O-kay so you've moved up in the world" he said, "So you're all grown up now and ready to take it on, I see."

She frowned at him, tossing her hair back.

"And you're repeating your senior year for what…the third time? Wouldn't that be called moving on down?"

This minx who had sprung up overnight had a sassy mouth on her.

"Only the second," he said, "But I'm a busy guy with a lot on my plate. I don't have much time for spending hours each day with a bunch of underdeveloped kids being programmed into the next round of PC robots."

Kristina raised her brow.

"So why are you here today?"

His face grew sullen.

"My sister Claudia said she'd break both of my legs if I ditched school again," he said, "She's worse than a mother."

"She's a scary looking woman," Kristina agreed, "Why does she wear dark clothes all the time? Is she like gothic?"

Johnny laughed.

"No, she's Claudia," he said, "Our family situation is way too complicated to explain in the school hallway."

"Try me," Kristina said, "Somehow I don't see my latest stepmother who dresses like a gloomy tramp as being all that complicated.

Johnny didn't like the references to his sister, but he couldn't really launch a convincing argument against them so he changed the subject instead.

"What were you doing hanging out with Spinelli at Coleman's bar this morning," he asked.

"He was teaching me how to play pool," she said.

"If you ever play for money which is the only way to do it right," he said, "You'll need a better tutor than him to teach you."

"Yeah I know," she said, "I was thinking of asking Jason Morgan to give me some tips on my game."

Johnny's jaw dropped open.

"You're kidding right," he said, "Kristina, honey you need to stay away from him."

She sneered.

"Stop calling me 'honey' and Jason's way cool," she said, "I think he would be a wonderful teacher in pool…and other things."

"Kristina, what the hell are you talking about," he said, "You're just a little.."

But then he looked at her and noticed again that she had changed, her rail thin body had fleshed out and become more rounded. Her eyes more large, her lips full, her breasts…. When the hell did this all happen?

"I'm all women now," she preened, "by next week, I'll be in high school at the rate I'm going."

"Yeah right," he said.

She reached out and touched his arm, with her manicured fingernail marking a trail down to his hand. He removed it as if he'd been burned.

She fluttered her eyelashes and puckered her lips.

"What's the matter," she said, "You not like that?"

His eyes narrowed.

"Does your mother know you've got a thing going with Jason," he asked, thinking that would certainly give Alexis a coronary.

Kristina sighed and crossed her arms.

"My mom has no idea what I'm doing," she said, "She's too busy being the DA of all PC to even know that I exist. She still sees me as that little girl."

Johnny sensed a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"I'm sure your mother loves you very much," he said, "She's just got a lot on her plate prosecuting everyone in town, including half my family."

* * *

Alexis pulled out her Blackberry and tried to bring up her daily planner. She flipped through it, from one day's worth of activities to the next, looking for the dates that she had slept with the mayor of Port Charles. Somehow she wasn't surprised to see that none of these alleged liaisons appeared in any of her daily schedules. She sat down at the table in the diner and sipped her herbal tea laced with some home-brought scotch in relief.

She reached for her phone.

"Alexis, is that you again," Dianne

said, wearily.

"Did I interrupt you at a bad time," she said.

"Max might think so," Dianne said, "He was just about to demonstrate a rather exotic…"

Alexis cheeks flamed at just the idea of her best frenemy rolling in the sack with Sonny's loyal if somewhat incompetent bodyguard at some Vegas Casino hotel .

"I'm sorry to interrupt your…well…"

"The best sex I've ever had," Dianne finished.

"Yeah…whatever," Alexis said, flustered.

"So what's the problem," Dianne said, "Your daughter or the mayor?"

Alexis tried to take another sip of her drink to calm herself enough to continue.

"Well, you know when I told you that I heard that I had sex with the mayor," she said.

"Oh yes, I remember that," Dianne said, "and you couldn't remember if it was good or bad."

"No, no, no," Alexis said, "I don't remember having sex with the guy at all. And that's all I've been hearing about is that I had some lurid affair with the man."

Silence greeted Alexis as Dianne took some time to digest her words.

"Are you still there," said Alexis acting as if this phone call were her lifeline.

"Yes…Max is checking his suitcase for the…oh never mind…," Dianne said, "So are you sure you didn't just experience a memory blackout and just forgot you slept with the mayor?"

"No, no, I know I never did," she said, "You see if I did, I would have scheduled it in my planner and if it were in my planner, it would be in my Blackberry and when I checked my Blackberry…"

"I get it Alexis," Diane said, interrupting her.

"So I know I never slept with him," she said, "Yet someone called me on the phone from the PC Inquirer and told me that photos had been sent to them of myself and the mayor in flag delecto in bed together."

"Really," Dianne said, "How interesting."

"Although technically, not all of them involved a bed," Alexis rattled on.

"Have you seen these photos?"

Alexis put her hand through her hair.

"Well no, but you know I couldn't have done something like this," she said, "The only wild sex I had was with Jerry and we know how that turned out."

"Well, it's not like you've been a nun exactly," Dianne said, "but you tend to have long droughts between sexual interludes and then you get pregnant when you do do the deed."

"Yeah, I wonder about that," Alexis mused, "Oh dear, maybe I should go out and get a test done just in case something happened this time."

Dianne looked up from where she was lying and saw Max heading towards her with something made of leather.

"You do that Alexis and if anything else comes up, give me a call," she said, "I've got a man waiting for me."

Alexis sat and tried to make sense of the whole situation but the more she tried, the more confused she became. This day had been a nightmare from the time she had gotten out of bed and discovered her beloved little girl Kristina had become a surly teenager and then there were the twin visits of bad boys past and now she just found out she had sex with the mayor and a scandal had begun to emerge!

Just when she thought it couldn't be worse, she remembered she still had to talk to Sonny about their wayward daughter. Damn, it was days like this she wished she could stay in bed and just pull her 700 thread sheets over her head for the rest of the day.

* * *

Kristina followed him, always one block ahead, ducking behind trees and light posts when he looked behind him. Jason had always seemed to have built in radar for being aware of everything and everyone around him which was downright uncanny. But if he knew she was tailing him, he kept it to himself. She watched as he went into Coleman's where he met up with a skinny brunette with large breasts. Damn, it was her sister, Samantha. Okay, technically they were only half-sisters because apparently when her mother was a teenager, she had gotten pregnant and had given birth to a daughter that she had completely forgotten about. After all, if Alexis had remembered she had another daughter, you would think that when Kristina had been lying near death with aplastic anemia several years ago, that her mother would have traveled the ends of the earth to find her half-sister. The only explanation was to chalk it up to some serious case of amnesia.

Kristina crept closer to where Jason met up with Sam, hiding behind the garbage bin so she could hear what they were saying.

"Oh Jason, I just can't deny these feelings that I've had for you so long," Sam said, breathlessly.

Jason looked her over casually.

"I can see now that you are the one for me," he said.

She smiled.

"So does that mean you're over Liz?"

Jason's eyebrows wrinkled.

"What does she have to do with this," he said, "We share a child together but my lifestyle is putting his own welfare in danger."

Sam nibbled her lip.

"You're not upset about that dalliance that I had with her husband?"

Jason raised a brow.

"Any reason why I should be," he said, "After all, it's only natural for you to take that course."

She put her hands in her pockets.

"What do you mean?"

"Sam, we both know that every time one man rejects you, you just hop into bed with another one. After all that's how we got together."

She opened up her mouth in shock.

"I do not," she said, folding her arms.

"Sam, when you found out about me and Liz, you seduced your own stepfather," he said, "and then there's the time…"

"Oh just drop it," she said, "Let's go in and play some pool."

Kristina watched the couple go in the diner with a smile widening her face. Oh how perfect! Kristina had believed that Sam would prove to be her largest obstacle in her pursuit of Jason Morgan but after this conversation, she realized that Jason had just gone back to her on the rebound from Liz who was the rebound from Sam and so forth. If she played her cards carefully and didn't make the mistakes that these women clearly had made, she could win the man of her dreams!

She walked down the street whistling under her breath.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5---Here's the latest installment of this story. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading and the comments!

* * *

Kristina's sighting of the squabble between ultra cool Jason and her somewhat skanky half-sister Sam made her day. No, it made her entire week. For the first time, she saw a clear path between herself and the coolest and sexiest man in PC which was Jason Morgan. Jason had dumped Sam for a while to hang out with one of his ex-girlfriends Liz who got pregnant with his child and then decided she didn't want to hang out with a man who brought danger and death around her and her children so she dumped him and inertia brought her back to Sam's door. It had to be nothing more than that which reunited the two, because Sam rarely even had a real job and no real taste in clothes. Pushing her out of the picture would be a cinch, Kristina thought.

Kristina had been a toddler when she met her long-lost sister who had been born under a shroud of mystery and without a father as well. Alexis didn't talk much about the circumstances surrounding Sam's birth and the years she had spent separated from her mother before she suddenly appeared and was embraced into Alexis' family tree without having to take a DNA test

. Kristina had always assumed that the silence her mother held on the matter meant that Sam must have been spawned from a real live demon and that Alexis couldn't come to terms that she had hooked up with the ultimate in bad boys. What other explanation could there be for having a mother who had completely forgotten that she had a daughter years ago even when that knowledge could have saved Kristina's life? And Sam looked the part.

The way her mother told the story, she had focused her search for a donor to save Kristina's life on Sam because the child she carried shared a father with Kristina, that being Sonny a man blessed with a brooding personality that dysfunctional women found irresistible and super sperm that enabled him to get a woman pregnant just like looking at her. Then Sam had somehow lost her baby and Alexis had lost what would have been her first grandchild.

But Sonny, Kristina's father did have a way of looking at a woman that would make her want to jump into bed with him and many a woman did. Somehow Kristina couldn't picture a suave cosmopolitan yet street smart guy like Sonny Corrinthos doing the horizontal with her uptight mother and Alexis had never provided much in the way of details involving her conception.

It had taken more than looking at him for Alexis to find herself in the position of taking a pregnancy test so clearly sex was involved in the equation somewhere but clearly her parents weren't still together. Instead, Sonny had hooked up with an assortment of neurotic women, the latest being Bridezella who had also gotten pregnant with his child. Kristina couldn't stand Claudia especially her attempts to cozy up to her half-brother Michael who had just gotten out of the hospital after having his brain unscrambled by surgeons, after it had spent two years in a coma. He had spent that time bedbound after he had been shot while being in the wrong place at the wrong time of another one of PC's regular mob shootouts. What Kristina couldn't figure out was how Mikey could have grown two feet and lost a thick crop of carrot hair without one single doctor noticing anything strange about that. She had visited him several times at the hospital when Claudia hadn't draped herself all over him, but Michael seemed to be mostly a young man hard wired to be angry at everyone.

Kristina turned around to walk back to Coleman's bar to look in the window into the smoky bar to watch Jason play some rounds of pool with an assortment of touch looking guys with tattoos who walked away broke and shaking their heads. She sighed and her knees felt weak. Maxie walked up behind her.

"He's not bad looking if you like the hard core mobster type," she said, "but he's out of your league."

Kristina shrugged.

"A girl can look, can't she," she said, "It doesn't mean we're an item."

Maxie looked at the younger girl who used to be much younger than her and saw herself in her shoes. After all, she had crushed out on older guys too, only she had pretty much skipped her teen years and had gone straight into young womanhood. She felt she had some advice to pass along to someone who had been where she had been…oh about a year ago…but would Kristina be any better a listener than she had been?

"Come on Kristina," she said, "Why don't we go to the diner, buy a coke and have a little talk about men."

Kristina scoffed.

"Only if the coke comes with bourbon," she said.

"Not unless you want to spend the night drying out in the PC jail," Maxie said, "and I can say from experience that's not a good time."

Kristina brushed her hair off of her shoulders.

"That's probably because you lived with the commissioner," Kristina said, "Which is got to be better than living with the D.A."

Maxie shrugged.

"All I can say is that I know what it's like to live in a strict household," she said, "I just can't remember what most of my childhood was like but I can certainly understand what you're going through."

Kristina doubted that but decided to head off to the diner with her anyway because she was treating. They both walked away from Coleman's bar with Kristina taking a last glance into the window where Jason prepared to rack the balls for another game.

* * *

Alexis waited in the office until Sonny got off the phone with one of his business associates. He had held up his hand when he saw her enter the room. Claudia, being her usual Bridezella self, glowered in the corner. Alexis decided to ignore her, as she did with all the women that Ric and Sonny shared these days.

Sonny finally got off the phone and then turned toward her smiling.

"I take it this is not a personal visit," he said, gesturing her to sit down.

"It's about Kristina," Alexis said getting right to the point, "She's become a rebellious teenager over night."

Sonny put his hands together and brooded.

"I saw her yesterday," he said, "In fact I had the bodyguard pick her up from kindergarten."

"I tucked a younger girl into bed last night," Alexis said, "or so I thought until I woke up this morning. I thought it was a bad dream."

Sonny stood still, his fingers rubbing against his lips.

"Maybe she just looks older," she said, "She's always been tall for her age."

Alexis sighed in exasperation.

"Sonny, she has a belly piercing," she said.

His brows shot up.

"A what," he said, "When did that happen?"

"That's my point," Alexis said, "I don't know when she had it done. Last night, she was just a little girl."

"So what do you want me to do about it," he asked, looking pensive.

"Oh… I don't know…nothing…dispense some reassurance that I'm just imagining all this," she said, "but I realize that none of this is your forte."

Sonny nodded.

"I could talk with her," he said, "take her out to lunch at her favorite place with the playground."

"Sonny, she's not a little girl," Alexis said, "She doesn't do playgrounds anymore."

That put him at a loss.

"I could take her shopping," he said, "Maybe Claudia would like to go."

Alexis looked at Sonny in horror.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come," she said.

Sonny's temper flared.

"She's my daughter too Alexis," he said, "I will spend some time with her and find out what's going on."

Alexis broke out into a smile and even kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you Sonny," she said, "Maybe between the two of us we can get to the bottom of this."

Sonny shrugged.

"If there's anything to get to the bottom of," he said, "What's happening to her is probably very normal in a girl…her age."

"I just want to make sure my Kristina's all right," Alexis said, before leaving the room. Sonny looked at the mother of his oldest child leave and just shook his head. Claudia just watched him before jumping up and waving her arms around.

"Sonny, how can you just let that woman talk to you that way," she asked.

"She's the mother of my oldest daughter Claudia," Sonny said, "She's just worried about our daughter and when she gets worried, she just gets a little…."

"Crazy?"

Sonny smiled.

"That and more," he said, "but she wasn't in full form today. You should see her some day when she gets to that point."

Claudia shook her head.

"I think I'll go and visit Michael," she said, "I have a whole list of songs for his iPod and I can see if he…remembers anything more about his former life."

Sonny sighed.

"Now don't push him too hard," he said, "He's in a volatile state right now. I'm wondering if he has the same condition that Jason got in that accident."

"Don't even say his name in the same sentence with Jason," Claudia said, "Michael's a sweet young boy, not a trained sociopathic hitman."

Sonny scowled and waved his finger.

"I'm worried about him so don't say anything that will upset him," he said.

"Have I ever," Claudia said, before skulking out of the room.

Sonny looked at her for a long time as she left then picked up the phone to make a call.

* * *

Kristina and Maxie once again settled at the diner where most of the edgy residents of PC hung out at one time or another and Maxie began the task of trying to teach Kristina what it meant to be literally a teenager almost over night. Of course, Kristina having just undergone the experience didn't see it that way as she felt every inch the teenager that she looked. It's just that her memory had weakened in spots and she couldn't remember key moments of having reached that stage in her young life.

"It's not easy but you'll get through it," Maxie said, patting the younger girl's hand, "I did just fine."

"But what about your sister," Kristina said, "I kind of remember you having one. For a brief second, she was in my mind as a little girl but she was older than I am now when she died."

Maxie's face clouded over at the mention of Georgie's death.

"Ah yes," she said, "Georgie on some level seemed to grow up even faster than I did," she said, "Not that it helped her. It might have gotten her killed."

Kristina frowned.

"I don't want to end up like that," she said, "I just want my mom to lay off with the over protectiveness, my father to remember he has a daughter and not just two sons and to have a really hot boyfriend."

Maxie nodded her head, impressed.

"Those are certainly worthwhile goals at your age," she said, "Of course next week who knows, you might be older than me and then you'll have to reset your goals."

Kristina looked at her latte.

"This is just so complicated," she said, "I mean I could have sworn I shared a stroller with my younger sister Molly not too long ago and now I can carry her."

"You might as well hold onto to that memory because by next week, Molly could be stealing your clothes, the family car and going after the same guys you want."

"Wow," she said, "Life is so unpredictable that way. Is it like that everywhere or just PC?"

Maxie couldn't answer that question.

"I don't know, but there's a lot about PC that's mysterious," she said, "People don't stay dead, there's rumors that a family of vampires lived around here and if you want to travel across town or to another country, all you have to do is go up or down a flight of stairs and there you are."

Kristina's eyes widened.

"I'll have to try that one someday," she said.

Suddenly, someone entered the diner and both girls stopped talking to wonder why he had come within their midst.

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7---The latest chapter of this fanfiction. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Kristina thought that maybe it was long past time for her to pay a visit to her father, but if the truth be told, he kind of weirded her out. Not because of what he did for a living as an importer of (cough)coffee(cough) but because more than once, she had caught him engaging in some rather strange activities when he thought no one was looking.

There was the time she had peered into his parlor when he had stood in front of the bureau mirror repeating the phrase, "you are dead to me" over and over. Then there was the way he collected wives and girlfriends often at the same time and everyone seemed to get along more or less without killing each other. Kristina tried to count the current members of Sonny's harem which included Bridezilla, Countess Kate, Olivia the Couger and Revolving Door Carly. But what could you say, there were women that Sonny married and then there were women that he just slept with and who clearly didn't have the ovaries to blackmail him into walking down the aisle. And Kristina figured out at a pretty young age which group included her mother as a card carrying member.

Sonny's latest bride did have all that he usually asked for in a woman and more and the one thing that Kristina could say about her was that she made Sonny's serial wife, Carly, seem a bit less freaky in retrospect. But then she had a feeling that Bridezilla freaked everyone out, except for her uncle Ric, who had also for a brief period of time been her step-father. Oh yeah, Ric, another addition to the list that detailed Daddy's weirdness factor.

Still, Kristina couldn't dwell too much on her father because she and Maxie were busy plotting how Kristina could get herself a hot guy.

"Maybe you shouldn't set your sights on Jason," Maxie cautioned, "Every woman who hangs around with him shrinks from being an independent career woman into a doormat in less than a year."

"I think he's just so hot," Kristina said, "I mean, that hair. Who in PC can match that?"

Maxie had to agree that Kristina did have a point there. Jason did have nice hair that defied certain natural laws, but ….

"All his girlfriends either wind up getting shot or beat up by his enemies," she said, "or they have to patch up his bullet wounds."

"Oh that sounds so... romantic," Kristina said, "so much better than getting dumb old flowers or candy."

Maxie looked at her charge and just sighed. She had so much of her father and mother in her looks which meant she would be breathtaking by the time she did grow up which could be at the rate she was going by the end of the month. Yet, she also had both sets of genes melded into her personality which might not necessarily be a good thing. Mixing Corinthos blood with that belonging to the Cassadine dynasty was just asking for trouble. But now that the product of such a volatile cauldron of DNA had come asking her for advice on men, Maxie felt obligated to keep her on the straight and narrow path.

They both stopped talking when they saw Olivia sashay through the door of the diner and walk up to the counter to order her daily jolt of java. Every man and most of the women in the place gazed at her in awe as she passed them.

"Why do they do that," Kristina asked, somewhat annoyed.

Maxie smiled.

"Because Olivia has landed herself a much younger and very hot young man," she said, "They all want to know what she's got."

Kristina rolled her eyes.

"She's an old lady, like my mom."

Maxie sighed.

"She's not that old really," she said, "and whatever she's got, Johnny clearly wants it."

Kristina detected a note of both pride and wistfulness in Maxie's voice.

"I thought you liked Johnny," she said, "You spend a lot of time looking at him."

Maxie shook her head quickly.

"Oh no," she said, "I'm totally down with my boyfriend."

"You mean Spinelli," Kristina said, "The nerdy guy who gives us all fancy nicknames that somehow make sense."

Maxie grinned.

"What is on the surface of a man is not all that's there," she said, "and Spinelli is like an iceberg, 90% of what makes him such a great guy is below the surface. You can't see it."

Kristina frowned.

"Well, then wherever there's an iceberg, there's got to be a Titanic somewhere, right?"

Maxie narrowed her eyes.

"I guess," she said, "but Johnny and I, we could never get together. He's not my type."

Kristina thought that Johnny looked pretty hot but being kin to Bridezilla was enough to knock him off her to-do list.

"He's not bad looking but not my type either," Kristina said, "Besides he's not Jason."

"Kristina honey," Maxie said, "They don't come around often like Jason. Besides he wasn't born, he was made as a result of a horrible, tragic car accident."

"I heard about that," Kristina said, "and how it changed him from a cute but bland beach boy doctor into a friggin' hot mobster babe."

Maxie sighed at the glow of excitement on the younger girl's face.

"Something like that," she said, "and the young girls in PC Junior High are already lining up placing bets on Michael undergoing the same transformation and who will land him first."

Kristina wrinkled her nose.

"Well his hair changed color so no one can call him Carrot Top anymore," she said, "That's a start."

Maxie looked up and saw Olivia grab her java jolt and come walking towards their table.

"Guess who's coming this way," she said, less than thrilled.

* * *

Alexis called Diane who hadn't yet returned from her romp in Las Vegas with Max on the phone to update her on her own investigation into her alleged affair with the mayor.

"Hello…Diane are you there?"

Diane picked up the phone. Max sighed next to her as he realized that the leather whip and cuffs were going to have to wait.

"Yes, this is she," Diane said, "Darling, this had better be important."

Alexis inhaled. _Just breathe_, she said to herself like a mantra.

"Just what?"

"Oh nothing…I was just thinking of my visit that I just had with Kristina's father…Sonny."

"Yes and did you two go a couple rounds again," Diane asked.

"Yes…no, actually he seemed concerned that I was concerned about what's been going on with our daughter."

"You mean the growth spurt she's currently experiencing?"

Alexis tried to keep from hyperventilating.

"Growth spurt," she said, "This is no such thing. I put my daughter to bed and she was a little girl and now…"

"She's a teenager," Diane said, "Yeah I know. This happens to every mother. Their children grow up too fast."

"I'm speaking more literally," Alexis said, "But Sonny just said he would spend more time with her like take her to the playground."

Diane laughed.

"Sounds like someone's not keeping up with the times," she said.

"That's what I told him," Alexis said, "Then he suggested that she go shopping with his latest wife, that thing…Claudia."

"Ahh, yes," Diane said, "I would advise you to keep Kristina as far away from that creature as possible."

"I intend to do just that."

Diane changed the subject.

"I thought you were calling about your torrid romp with the mayor," she said.

"There is no torrid romp," she said, "I could have sworn he…I…we never did the…"

"Horizontal mambo," Diane suggested, "Maybe you did it standing up."

"We didn't do anything at all," Alexis said, barely holding onto her temper.

"Alexis, you told me yourself there were photos…"

"All fake," she said, "If I had slept with him, I would have remembered it and if I didn't, I would have scheduled it on my Blackberry."

"Maybe you got all spontaneous and forgot to do that," Diane said.

"I wouldn't forget so I know that we never slept together," Alexis said, "This is just crazy and it's going to be all over the PC tabloids by tomorrow."

"How do you know?"

"Because that horrid "Good Morning PC" reporter, Candy or whatever has been leaving me messages to do breakfast with her."

"Oh that's not good," Diane said, "Well, Alexis got to go. I've got a man here waiting."

Alexis' cheeks flushed.

"Oh…okay, you run along," she said, "I'll handle my life falling apart on this end of the line."

But Diane had already hung up. Alexis sighed and put her phone away when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

She almost screamed.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8---Here's the latest chapter of this FF. Hope you enjoy reading it and thanks for the comments.

* * *

Alexis turned around and saw that her first and still favorite husband Jax had tapped her on the shoulder. Oh, you've got to pull yourself together, she said to herself. If a guy like sweetheart Jax made you jump, it was time to start thinking about some serious therapy.

"Alexis, don't tell me I surprised you," Jax said, taking her into a tight embrace.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of being held so close to one of the most handsome, sexiest and wealthiest men in Pt. Charles. She loved him dearly and never slept with him because 1) she didn't want to ruin such a great friendship and 2) Jax was not nearly dangerous enough. And Alexis had to face facts. She only swooned over dangerous men who were either criminals or sociopaths or better yet, embraced both qualities with equal enthusiasm.

Oh yes, there had been Ned, who had patiently waited for her to commit to a solid relationship with him but when the day of their wedding approached, off ran the bride. Ned's heart had been shattered in more pieces than she probably knew and he had never been quite the same since even while being pursued by that Lois retread and raising his teenaged daughter. But as cute as he was, he hadn't been nearly bad enough to knock her socks off either.

Alexis smiled at Jax.

"You know I feel nothing but the highest affection for you," she said, running her hands down her arms, "My mind was just running elsewhere."

He stooped to look closer into her eyes.

"I can see that," he said, "You look like you have a lot on your mind."

She rolled her eyes.

"I always have a lot on my mind," she said, "but this time, I had been at Sonny's talking to him about what's been going on with our daughter."

"At least he remembered he had one," Jax grumbled.

"Now Jax, he might be a bit…distracted these days but he's always been a good father to Kristina," Alexis said, "Okay, wait scratch that…but he's had his moments when he has time in his chaotic, frenetic and very dangerous schedule, he really does."

Jax shook his head.

"His own son is lying in the hospital just out of having his brain completely rebuilt because of Sonny's lifestyle blowing up in his face," Jax said, "How many lives lost or ruined by his so-called coffee importing business?"

Alexis sighed.

"You're talking to the choir, Jax," she reminded him, "but he is her father and something serious is going on with Kristina."

Jax looked alarmed.

"Is she ill," he asked, "Has she been hurt?"

Alexis shook her head furiously.

"No…no," she said, then her voice dropped, "She just is…different."

Jax smiled.

"It's called growing up," he said, "She can't stay a little girl forever."

"Then you know…"

His face looked puzzled.

"Know what?"

"That she's not a little girl anymore," Alexis said, "She's a rebellious, sullen teenager."

Jax laughed.

"That's hardly anything to be alarmed about," he said, "I've heard it's a phase."

"No Jax," she said, "You don't understand. I put a little girl to bed last night and woke up this morning and now I have a teenager."

His brows rose.

"Really?"

She frowned.

"And I think I'm getting wrinkles," Alexis said, "or I should be if I have a teenager for a daughter."

"You have a woman in her 20s that's a daughter too," Jax said.

Alexis sighed unhappily.

"I know," she said, "and the only thing we have in common is our taste in men."

"Well, Alexis you and I…we never…"

Her face reddened.

"Oh I know, but you get what I'm saying here."

He had to admit that she had a point.

Alexis ran her hand through her hair.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with her," she said, "She acts like she hates me."

"She's your daughter," Jax said, "She loves you. She's just at an age where it's not cool to show it, that's all."

"I'm one to talk," Alexis said, "I mean, I had sex and got pregnant, had a baby when I was a teen and forgot all about it. At least I think I did. I wasn't thinking about it when Kristina was seriously ill and needed a donor."

"You were probably just stressed."

"Who could be that stressed," Alexis said.

Jax tried not to smile.

"And if that's not enough," Alexis said, "I had sex with the mayor and forgot about that too."

Jax looked stunned.

"What are you saying," he said, "You…the mayor…really?"

Alexis took a deep breath.

"Yes really," she said, "According to these pictures that Good Morning Port Charles has threatened to air on live television."

"How could you forget about you and the mayor," Jax said, looking as imagining such a scenario was downright impossible.

Alexis threw up her hands.

"I…I don't know," she said, "I mean I checked my planner and there's nothing there. Am I going crazy?"

Jax said nothing, not having an easy answer to her question.

* * *

Kristina sat and watched as Lucky Spencer ambled on by their table at the diner.

"Now there's a fine looking man," she said.

Maxie shook her head.

"You don't want him," she said, "Good on the eyes but those Spencers are trouble."

Kristina grew intrigued and raised her brow.

"Oh really," she said, "Tell me more about him."

Maxie shrugged.

"There's not much to tell," she said, "He had a brief fling with Sam but he's trying to get back with Liz. They're like childhood sweethearts."

Kristina looked smug.

"Liz isn't all that," she said, "Drama queen if you ask me."

"Well, she's got Lucky wrapped around her finger these days," Maxie said, "She did the horizontal with Jason and had his kid and Lucky still wants her back."

Kristina slunk back in her seat.

"How can a woman like Liz have two of PC's most hottest looking guys fighting over her," she said, shaking her head, "I just don't get it."

"We're lucky we even have any hot guys left," Maxie said with a sigh, "With most of them getting murdered by deranged serial killers. That is if they aren't actually serial killers themselves."

Kristina sipped her drink.

"I still think Jason's the hottest guy," she said, "so I think I'll go ask him out."

Maxie nearly choked on her drink.

"Honey, have you ever heard of a term called 'jail bait'?"

Kristina looked nonplussed.

"Well yeah, but…"

"He could go to jail in this town just for looking at you," Maxie said, "and your mom's the DA and she'd just fry his ass without a trial."

Kristina nodded.

"You're probably right," she said, "I don't think my mom even wants me talking to a guy let alone Jason."

Maxie nodded sagely.

"Better drop him off of your list."

Kristina shrugged.

"But who knows," she said, "If it's true I'm aging faster, by the end of next week I might not be jail bait anymore and my mom can't boss me around about who I can and can't date."

"You might have a point," Maxie said, reluctantly, "but it might just be better to set your sights on someone else."

Kristina had no intention of doing that. She had picked her man and no one and nothing was going to stop her from landing him as her boyfriend. The rest of PC would just have to deal.

* * *

"It's going to be all right, Alexis," Jax said, "These scandals have a way of blowing over quickly. This is a town of short attention spans."

She shook her head.

"I don't think so Jax," she said, "They're claiming I slept with the mayor to keep my job as D.A."

"But you don't remember a thing about this liaison?"

"No," Alexis said, "but I saw the photos and it's definitely me. Though I have to admit, I have never thought of myself as so wanton…"

He grabbed her hands.

"Well if you need my support," he said, "You know you have it without asking."

She nodded and thanked him.

"I just wish I knew who was behind this all," she said, "I'll bet it's Ric, that bastard ex-husband of mine."

Jax looked away. He knew she could be right.

"Where's he been lately anyway," he said, "Crawled back underneath his rock somewhere?"

"He's been sleeping with Sonny's latest wife, Claudia," she said, "Why is it that they always share their women?"

Jax didn't even want to go down that road. After all, Alexis, Sam, Carly...all three men had them in common in one way or another. Speaking of which... looked up the street and saw his own beloved, his newest wife Carly.

Alexis saw her too.

"Look I'll be going," she said, kissing Jax on the cheek, "Thanks as always for your love and support."

"Any time," he said, watching her go shaking his head and then steeling himself to deal with his wife who didn't look happy at all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9---Here's the latest chapter of this FF story. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy it and thanks for the reviews!

* * *

Alexis picked up her cell phone. She was surprised to see Sonny, the father of her eldest daughter on the Caller ID since they had just spoken.

"Sonny, why are you calling me," she said.

"It's about Kristina," he said.

"What about her," she asked, "We just had a conversation about her."

He hesitated on the other end.

"I'm concerned with her because of all the rumors floating around that you had sex with the mayor."

Alexis' jaw dropped. Damned this latest trash talking about her and the mayor had legs. Who in Port Charles at this point hadn't heard the lurid details about a sexual romp she had with a man she detested that she couldn't even remember? Okay so maybe the rumored family of vampires who lived within their midst hadn't gotten wind but as soon as they left their coffins…Now look at her, she had gotten crazy enough by this mess to start believing in urban legends.

She felt herself begin to hyperventilate and wondered where she left her paper bag.

"Just breathe Alexis…"

"What did you just say," Sonny said, "I'm here to tell you I'm worried about how this latest…episode involving you and the mayor is going to impact her mind."

His words pissed Alexis off. She was really working on this anger management thing but he had crossed the line.

"I…did…not…has…sex…with…the…mayor," she said.

"Alexis, they have pictures of you two," he said, "I just had some crazy lady on 'Good Morning Port Charles' call me on the phone and ask me what I thought about them and you…and the mayor."

Her heart began to pound. This whole situation had gotten out of control so quickly. Now her paper bag wouldn't even calm her down even if she could find it. She thought about calling Spinelli to bring her some more grass to help the "Mother of the Goddess" find her bearings then dropped it. Even though Ric had disappeared again, he could still be lurking around town somewhere to use it against her to get custody of Molly.

"That's not me," Alexis insisted, "It's just someone who looks like me."

"Who has that same mole…you know where… just like you?"

Damn, he had her there. Fortunately she hadn't slept around town a lot so very few people knew about her beauty mark, proof positive she had Cassadine blood in her veins. She would just have to go on a celibacy kick and keep it that way until this whole situation died down and people found something else to gossip about around the water front.

"Well, maybe it's me," she admitted, "but I'm not sure. You see I don't remember a thing."

She heard a sigh on the other end.

"Don't tell me you've been smoking the happy grass again…"

She hated the chastising sound of his voice. How dare he judge her or her habits considering the background he came from as an on-and-off again (cough)coffee (cough) importer.

"No, I have not been doing any drugs," she said, "I just don't remember and I'm pretty sure those photos are forged. I wouldn't be surprised if your brother is behind it."

"Ric…no one's seen him," Sonny said, "He probably left town to find himself again. He asked Claudia to come with him but she's too smart to hang around a loser like him."

Now that stung. Too smart, meaning that she was smarter than a fully trained and experienced lawyer like Alexis? Claudia was a harpy who wore dark clothing and had sucked the life out of her ex-lover and father of her eldest daughter like a parasite.

"I hope you got a DNA test before she left," Alexis said, "to do a paternity test on Claudia's little bun in the oven."

"Why," Sonny said, "I know it's mine. I look at a woman and she gets pregnant."

She nearly laughed at that one. Still, it was almost true in her case.

"Sonny, look I know you're concerned but Kristina and I are just fine," Alexis said, "except for this little thing like tucking her in bed when she's a child and waking up and finding she's a rebellious teenager."

"Oh that," Sonny said, "I wouldn't worry about that. Look what a year-long coma did to Michael. He's out driving a sports car and I don't even remember him going to the DMV to get a license."

* * *

Kristina tailed her quarry, Jason as he walked down the street. She had lapsed in her pursuit several minutes while considering the hunky Lucky as an alternative in the boyfriend department but decided that Liz's claws weren't something that she really wanted to deal with so her resolve switched quickly enough back to Jason. After all, he and Liz were history and he had hooked back up with home-wrecking Sam. She knew she could hold her own against her half-sister to get her man.

Maxie hadn't been so sure but then again, she had still considered her the little girl with the bows in her hair from times not long ago. Kristina had so gotten past that painful part of her life. After all, look at her now, a teenager with a sense of fashion. Everyone who had teased her at school was just jealous of what she'd become.

"Hey Kristina."

She looked up, momentarily distracted from her focus on Jason and saw Lulu strolling towards her. Now Lulu, being a Spencer had an eye for graft but hadn't worked that muscle but instead, had inherited her mother's looks and her mental instability. She had been the apple of Johnny's eye for a while during the time they experienced that rite of passage that all young teenagers on the threshold of adulthood in PC did known as spending a summer "on the run". It didn't matter who you were running from, whether it was the mob, the police, your parents or even bad hair days. What was important was your choice in wardrobe and your set of wheels that you used to run away. Sometimes it brought couples closer together. Sometimes it broke them apart. Lulu hadn't come out of her experience in very good shape. Certainly, Kristina thought, that had been her problem and not Johnny's.

"Where you off to," Lulu asked, looking at Kristina who was standing behind a tree.

"Oh nowhere," Kristina said, casually with one eye on Lulu in case she did anything crazy and the other on a disappearing Jason.

"Would you like to go to the mall and do some shopping?"

Kristina looked up in surprise. She couldn't believe Lulu was actually asking to go anywhere with her let alone shopping. Her mother had always been tight with Lulu's father, the eccentric town legend who for some reason called her "Natasha" instead of by her real name but Kristina hadn't ever really gotten to know him or his children. She had heard about Lulu's escapades and wondered how she had been able to cram so many adventures or rather misadventures in such a short life.

"I mean, you look like you might need some new clothes," Lulu continued, "You've grown since I've seen you like…last week."

"You noticed," Kristina said, despite herself, "Yeah I've faced some definite wardrobe challenges."

"I can fix that…if you'd like," Lulu said, "I went through something like that myself."

"You have?"

"And there's no self-help groups for those of us who have," Lulu said with a sigh, "Although there should be."

"I don't need help," Kristina insisted, "I just need my mother to give me some space and my father to stop acting so strange."

"That's a tall order," Lulu said, "Parents can't always be the way we want them to be but it doesn't mean they don't love us."

"So you say," Kristina said.

"So I know," Lulu said, "Now why don't we get you some new threads?"

"I don't have much cash on me and my mother holds onto her credit cards with an iron fist."

Lulu shrugged.

"I'll let you borrow some money," she said, "from one teenager who grew up too fast to another at the cusp."

Kristina found herself following the older girl, fervantly hoping she hadn't inherited enough of her father's criminal nature to do her shopping with a five fingered discount.

* * *

Alexis never did find her paper bag but some herbal tea helped calm down her racing heart. She couldn't believe that something she did that she couldn't remember was sweeping through the gossip mill. She felt the itch to call up Diane again but she decided to leave her alone in Vegas with Max, her whips and leather for a while she thought up a plan of action.

She heard a knock on the door and in entered Robin, daughter of dashing spy Robert Scorpio and his sometimes wife, Anna. Robin had nixed the world of double crossing, espionage and intrigue to become a doctor. And she proved to be excellent in the profession particularly during the quarterly medical emergencies that defined the courtship of her to her husband and father of her adorable daughter, Patrick.

"Hi Alexis," Robin said, bringing her a basket of something that smelled very good.

Alexis looked a bit wary. After all, she had only actually interacted with Robin a handful of times over the years. They usually didn't hit the same haunts of PC at the same time.

"It's good to see you Robin," Alexis said, "Can I help you with anything?"

Robin sighed.

"No, actually I'm here to help you," she said, "I just heard that you…"

"Slept with the mayor," Alexis said, "Hasn't everybody in town heard that by now?"

Robin put the basket down.

"I believe you're innocent Alexis," she said, "and I'm here to help you."

"Help me," Alexis said, "We barely know each other. I mean we should know each other better but somehow we don't."

"That's water under the bridge," she said, "I'm here to clear your name."

"But I haven't done anything yet!"

Robin hesitated.

"You did hear about the mayor's other mistress."

"What do you mean _other,_" Alexis said, "I never slept with him. If I did, I know I'd remember something even if it was lousy."

"I'm sorry, I mean the mayor had a lover and well…she's dead."

"Dead, really?"

"Alexis, where have you been," Robin said, "She's been murdered and they're probably going to question the mayor's other…well you know…"

Alexis frowned.

"I think I do," she said, "I think they're going to include me on the list of people to interrogate. Who was this mistress again? I never heard of any…"

"It was a woman in his office I think," Robin said, "but she's been declared dead by Mac and the coroner so they're drawing a list of suspects."

"Oh that's wonderful," Alexis said, "I guess I'll need a lawyer and the only one I know is in Vegas handcuffing her boyfriend…"

"What?"

Alexis blushed.

"I guess you don't need to know those details."

Robin grabbed Alexis' hand in her own.

"I just want you to know that I, my husband and baby Emma will be there for you," she said, "No matter what."

Alexis sighed but wondered if that would be enough. Once again, trouble was 'a brewing in PC and she was smack dab in the middle of it, not remembering a damn thing. Once again, she wondered if she should have taken the DA's job in Llanview.

* * *

Lulu and Kristina approached the mall, where there were plenty of clothing shops to choose from. They turned the corner past the ice cream shop and there he was. And before Kristina knew what happened, she ran smack into him.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10---Here's the latest chapter of this FF story. Hope you like it and thanks for the feedback!

* * *

Damn, he was hot!

That was the first thought that struck Kristina like a bolt of lightning when she looked up into his face. She could take the feeling that swept over her like a heat wave and bottle it up to sell it if about a dozen of PC's ingenues hadn't already done it and sold enough to retire in the Bahamas. For the first time in at least the day she had begun thinking of him, Jason slipped out of her mind and this hottie stepped into his place.

He placed his hands on her arms and her skin tingled beneath his touch. Her mouth opened and she was unable to close it. Lulu watched the metamorphosis taking place and simply shrugged. Obviously, Lulu wasn't as sensitive to the truly gorgeous members of the male sex as she was, Kristina thought. But soon enough, she forgot Lulu's presence and even her existence altogether. Something more important had taken over her line of vision.

"Are you okay," the man-god said, as he stopped her from falling.

She silently thanked him for that because if she went splat on the ground in front of him, she would never get over it without years of extensive counseling. And she didn't want to wind up like her mother.

"I…." she started.

He just smiled, waiting for her to continue but her cheeks flushed, which really wasn't like her.

"Yes," he said, waiting with a smile that ignited a flicker in her heart.

"I…," she started again, "I think I know you?"

He frowned slightly as if trying to place her. Kristina watched him and thought, oh my god he doesn't remember! She had seen him on the docks once flexing his arm while wearing a muscle shirt and some jeans and for a brief moment, he had glimpsed in her direction as if he had seen her hiding behind a wall. Of course, that had been a day or so, she thought. Maybe she had just imagined the whole thing. Maybe she didn't know for sure what happened because her memory of any day before she woke up this morning was a bit fuzzy.

"I don't think we've met," he said, "I think I'd remember if we did."

And her heart beat a hundred times faster like a moth fluttering in her chest. She placed her hand over it to still its cadence back to a manageable level. After all, she shouldn't appear too eager.

"I…saw you once," she said, "You probably didn't notice."

He shrugged and she took in his leather jacket and his tight jeans, boots on his feet. Typical tough guy apparel in PC picked up by any young man over the age of 15 at the same clothing corner store.

"I'm Dante," he said, sticking out his hand and she took it carefully.

"I'm…Kristina," she said, the feeling of his palm touching hers curling her toes and making her heart flutter even faster.

She felt faint and Lulu studied her for a moment.

"Are you okay," she asked.

Kristina nodded.

"Sure," she said, "It's just that running into…Dante is such a surprise."

"Uh-huh," Lulu said, doubtfully.

He smiled at both of them as he ran his hand through his hair.

"And you're Lulu, right?"

Lulu shrugged.

"Sure am," she said, "and you're new in town."

He nodded.

"I've just been here a little while but I think I'm going to stay…at least for a few months."

Lulu pursed her lips.

"Are you here on business…or pleasure?"

He gave that some thought. Kristina loved watching him thinking…standing…anything but wait a minute, he was focusing his attention on Lulu and not her!

"Both," he said, reaching into his back pocket of his jeans and whipping out a comb to run through his darkened locks.

Now Kristina was really in trouble.

"You…. You…" she stuttered.

His brows raised.

"What you trying to say…kid?"

And at that moment, Kristina's heart stopped. Not that she didn't expect it to happen but she had been hoping that the sheer pleasure of looking at a smokin' hot guy paying attention to her might cause a cardiac moment. Instead, she felt crushed because he didn't see her as a sexy hot thing at all, just a kid. A child, and not a woman. She prayed that the ground which led to the secret underground tunnels which snaked throughout PC and hid untold secrets would just open and swallow her up forever right now.

Dante and Lulu clearly missed the fact that Kristina was currently imploding inside while trying to paste a smile of indifference on her face.

"Nothing," she said, looking at the ground and hating herself for it.

He turned back to Lulu.

"Hey Lulu," he said, "You going to the bonfire at the waterfront tonight?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"Is this an official gathering or is it another arson for insurance?"

After all, she was a Spencer. She had to ask.

"No, it's a real bonfire," he said, "There's going to be good music, some dancing and plenty of good booze."

She shrugged, looking at him sideways.

"Maybe…"

"If you do, I'll catch you there," he said, and looked at her.

"I'll…think about it," she said, "I can't promise anything."

He nodded and then after a while, remembered Kristina was there and then nodded at her with a, "see ya kid" before taking off.

Kristina shook her head and glared at Lulu but the other woman's head was turned as she started looking at the boutiques on the street for a good sale. All of a sudden, Kristina had lost her enthusiasm for shopping and felt a sudden urge to engage in homicide. Maybe she was her mother's daughter after all.

* * *

Alexis hugged Robin goodbye.

"Thanks for pledging your support," she said, "It means a lot to me."

Robin squeezed her hands.

"Stay strong," she said, "I will exonerate you of any murder charges and find the real killer."

Alexis sighed.

"Can you like turn back the clock so I don't have sex that I can't remember with the mayor?  
Robin shook her head sadly.

"I can't do that," she said, "Are you sure you don't remember everything?"

"It couldn't have been all that great if I forgot," Alexis said, "but the pictures don't lie unless I can prove that they might have been altered."

"I can check that out for you if you'd like."

Alexis' hopes rose.

"Do you think you can," she said, "It looks so much like me, it's scary."

Robin nodded.

"I'm the daughter of secret agents for a clandestine international organization," she said, "I didn't grow up without some of my parents' talents rubbing off on me."

Alexis exhaled in relief.

"Thank you Robin," she said, "I'm sure you'll do your best."

"If my efforts don't work, I can still contact Casey for his assistance," Robin said.

Alexis furrowed her brow.

"Isn't Casey your imaginary friend you had when you're a child?"

Robin shook her head vigorously.

"He's an alien from another planet," she said, "We haven't been in touch for a while but I can still call him on this ring…"

She showed Alexis a small band with a large stone that displayed the colors of the rainbow if you examined it closely.

"That's a pretty ring," Alex said, eying it with some skepticism, "but does it really work?"

"If I call him on it, he will come," Robin said, conviction ringing in her voice.

"Well…okay, I guess anything that will help…"

And with another hug, Robin left her with a basket of goodies to give her sustenance as she struggled to figure out what to do with her most recent crisis.

* * *

Kristina sighed as Lulu grabbed some dresses and went to the dressing room to try them on. She had looked through everything in the store but couldn't find anything that she liked or that suited her. And everything that looked so good on Lulu just wouldn't look as good on her. The clothes just seemed so…tame and Kristina was ready to wear something that defined her as someone ready to go just a little bit wild.

"Kristina, what are you doing here?"

She looked up and saw Sam enter the store with a gold card which meant that she had gotten back in Jason's good graces enough to have access to his collection of plastic. It's not like Sam ever had a real job. She had been a con artist of some form or another since she was a teenager. She had grown up with a father who had turned out to be anything but and a disabled brother who had disappeared up a flight of stairs one day and never returned.

She knew that she was supposed to love Sam like an older sister but after she read on the wall of the girls' bathroom in elementary school that Sam had done the horizontal with her step father and Molly's dad, she just had a little trouble doing that. She had heard rumors that Sam had lost a baby fathered by her own father and been included in Uncle Jax's collection of women. Like mother, like daughter? Maybe, but Kristina had no intention of winding up mirroring either one of them. Her sweet granny, Helena had been sending her regular emails assuring her that she could avoid the family curse if she just listened to her and took her advice. Helena had also told her to keep their correspondence a secret because her mother "just wouldn't understand".

"Kristina, how does this look?"

Kristina looked away from her skanky sister to take in Lulu wearing a frilly pink dress with blue ruffles. She wrinkled her nose, knowing she would never get caught in anything dead like that even if she had the cleavage which she fervently hoped she would wake up with tomorrow.

"It looks…okay," she said, noncommittally.

Sam frowned.

"It's fine on an older woman but it's not quite right for you Krissy."

Kristina nearly slapped her when she used that name.

"Whatever," she said, not wanting to get into it with Sam today.

Sam searched the rack for a suitable dress for Kristina and pulled out a long sleeved blue number that nearly made Kristina lose her lunch.

"This would look adorable on you," Sam said.

"I'm not interested in any of the dresses here," Kristina said, "I think I'll go look across the street."

"I'll take you Krissy," Sam said, "but first I have to wait for Jason to help me pick out my dress."

The vision of her sister waiting to put her hands on _her_ man made Kristina quite mad.

"No thanks," she said, "I can go by myself."

Sam grabbed her arm but Kristina shook it off.

"You need an adult with you," Sam said.

"Good, then tell me when one gets here," Kristina said, as she slipped out of the store. She shook her head and walked to the boutique with the really cool clothes across the street, not even noticing that a man in disguise tailed her every move.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11---Here's the latest chapter of this FF. I hope you like it, thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews!

* * *

Kristina sauntered across the street to her boutique of choice and eyed the dresses hanging like eye candy in the front windows with longing. So much so, that she didn't notice the man tailing her and if she had known his identity, she would have truly been disgusted.

But she remained blissfully unaware, floating in her own world where she lived as the queen bee with a fabulous wardrobe, perfectly wavy hair and perky breasts surrounded by all of PC's most eligible bachelors and a few select married guys surrounding her leaving all the rest of the female population out in the cold.

And her mother was trapped on some deserted island somewhere, unable to mess with her daughter's life.

She wished she could just run away from the town that had spawned her but without an accomplice, some serious plastic and a good set of wheels, she remained trapped in the droll of her current small-town existence. As fast as she was growing, she still remained somewhat short of her rite of passage that all PC girls went through, which was her summer spent on the run. Hell, she didn't even have a worthy partner in crime yet when it was her turn nor did she have a plan. And she hadn't pissed off anyone besides her control freak of a mother yet to have anything really to run _from_. She really had to get to work on that. Like start picking fights with the local mob or something, only that wouldn't work because her father ran it now, not the legendary Frank Smith, and the star of her most recent fantasies Jason had until recently been his enforcer. Maybe she could catch spme surviving Cassadines involved in a diabolical plot and then shook her head. That wouldn't work either given that she was related to them and she had always believed that her Grecian island kin had always been sadly misunderstood by others. Labeled as being horrible villains when they were just trying to get by in a world where money and power were king and besides freezing PC, that would be doing the world a favor.

After all, even though Luke and Laura were considered the god and goddess of PC proper, they had stolen something that had belonged to the Cassadines and you couldn't really blame them for wanting it back. Even though it was just an old ugly black rock that currently was on display in the PC art museum, cordoned off from the general public when it wasn't the focus of an annual festival in its honor.

She would come up with something much cooler for her own summer on the run, something that would top Luke and Laura on their best day.

First, she had to get herself some cool duds and since Lulu had offered to foot the bill, she would make the most of it by seeking out only top of the line threads and truly awesome accessories including the necessary weapon of choice needed when she would be falsely accused of killing someone who had overstayed their welcome on the PC canvas and had to be picked off. She had eyed a pearl-handled switchblade in a pawn shop on the way to the boutique but decided that she didn't want to take after her mother with her attraction to cutlery.

Kristina walked inside the store and was immediately hit on by the sale's lady.

"Olivia, I didn't know you worked here," she said, shocked.

Olivia looked at the younger girl.

"Oh, it's just part-time," she said, "I get an employee discount and now that I'm seeing Johnny, I needed some new clothes."

Kristina nodded. That made sense for a teenager her age but why would a grown woman want a job like this if even to keep a stud like Johnny happy?

"What can I do to help you," Olivia said, "We've got a lot of stylish clothes here for teenaged girls like you."

Kristina rolled her eyes at the audacity of anyone telling her she was a carbon copy of every other girl in town.

"I'm just…looking," she said.

Olivia smiled.

"Well, tell me if you need any help," she said before walking away.

Yeah right, Kristina thought then walked to the racks in the center of the store to check out some dresses. She didn't notice the creepy man who was looking in the window at her as she sifted through the clothing, trying to find the perfect outfit.

But Lulu did.

"Jerry or whatever your name is this week, you get away from there right now," she said, stamping her foot.

He sighed as he turned to face her.

"What is it that bothers you, my pretty?"

She made a face.

"Save it," she said, "Your charm doesn't work on me. I'm a Spencer."

"Ah yes," he said, "and a pretty one at that but does she have her father's steel-trapped brains and his knack for larceny?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Jerry's face broke into a sly grin.

"Or does she have her mother's beauty and emotional fragility?"

"Watch it bud," Lulu warned, "I've been on the run after being accused of murder at least once. Want to make it twice?"

"Oh what fire," Jerry said, approvingly, "You are a Spencer."

Lulu didn't look impressed.

"No duh," she said, "Now stop being a perverted peeper of young women and move along."

He stepped towards her.

"Or you'll do what?"

Lulu sighed.

"Look Alexis couldn't pick a good man to save her life and Sam's a home wrecking tramp," she said, "But Kristina's a sweet girl and she deserves better than having her mother's rejects following her around town."

He looked miffed.

"I think you have me mistaken for Ric," he said, "I truly loved Alexis. It just…didn't work out."

"Oh spare me," Lulu said, "I've got mace and I know how to use it. Now get out of here before I call my father."

Jerry laughed but he stepped away from the window.

"Well I do have an appointment at the docks," he said, "and I best be going in case the waterfront's overbooked for clandestine meetings."

She watched him slink off into the shadows that lurked even in to the tourist district of the small town and shook her head, before walking into the boutique.

* * *

Alexis ran her hands through her hair again, hoping it would calm her down this time. Where the hell was that bastard Ric? He was supposed to pick up Molly for his court-approved visit but never showed up. She sighed, knowing he had pulled one of his disappearing acts again. And she had to meet with Mac at the Port Charles Police Department to be interviewed in either the investigation into her alleged affair of the mayor or some murder of some woman of no consequence, she wasn't sure which. The practiced attorney inside her reminded her that talking to the cops when they were after you was never wise but the emotional side of her needed to know exactly what she had done because she couldn't remember a damn thing. Then a hidden part of her just wanted to go get an AK-47 and reduce the male population of PC by several dozen…but she suppressed that part...most of the time.

The doorbell rang and she sighed, answering it, hoping it was Ric. It wasn't, but it was the next worst thing.

Claudia, Sonny's latest bride and the mother of his latest offspring.

"What are you doing here," Alexis asked, not opening the door wider.

The witch dressed in black pushed her way in her house anyway.

"I need to talk to you," Claudia said, "You need to stay away from Sonny."

"I'm not with Sonny," Alexis reminded her, "That was over and done with years before you showed up."

"You're upsetting him," Claudia continued, "and that upsets me."

Alexis looked at her exasperated.

"Look if you're that insecure about your place in his harem, you should be focusing your concern on his ex-wife, Carly."

"She's busy with Jax," Claudia said, "Now that she's pregnant with his child, that will keep her occupied for a while."

"But because I don't have a man, I'm after yours," Alexis guessed.

Claudia shrugged.

"It's nothing personal," she said, "I just keep tight control on what's mine and right now, that includes Sonny."

Alexis sighed, thinking the woman standing in front of her had so much to learn.

"Claudia, no one can control Sonny," she said, "Better women than you have pulled out their hair trying to rein him in from his own self-destructive behavior."

Claudia narrowed her eyes.

"You mean like you?"

"Well yes, I have a law degree. What do you have to offer Sonny except for faulty familial genes and a penchant for black leather," Alexis asked, "After all, you slept with the wrong brother first."

Claudia had to think about that.

"I have…plenty of time to devote to him."

Alexis shrugged.

"That's a start," she said, "and Sonny likes kept women up to a point until he gets bored with them and moves on."

Claudia shook her head.

"He won't get bored," she said, "Not with me and the hold I have over him."

"Claudia, dear," Alexis said, with a smile, "Blackmail's only good foreplay."

Claudia was shocked but only for a moment. How had Alexis guessed? But then she decided she had only been bluffing.

"You'd better tell Jerry that," Claudia muttered, "but then he dumped you, didn't he?"

"I dumped him," Alexis said, "The sex was extraordinary, but I always sensed he was hiding something from me."

"I thought I saw him skulking around the tourist district following your daughter," Claudia noted.

"You mean Sam?"

Claudia smiled.

"I mean Kristina," she said.

Alexis' face lit up.

"Why that creep," she said, "If he lays one hand on my daughter…"

"You'll do what, Alexis," Claudia taunted, "What you did to Luis?"

Alexis remained silently fuming.

"I know all about how you murdered him and then tried to pass it off on your dead sister or a split personality," Claudia said, "and I've heard that there were others…"

"What do you mean?"

Claudia shrugged.

"You're a Cassadine by blood," she said, "No further explanation is required. They are all natural born killers."

Alexis tried to rein in her homicidal impulses but it wasn't always easy.

"You'd better leave now, Claudia."

The other woman saw the expression on her face and backed up a few steps.

"Okay…but you've been warned," she said, "Stay away from my husband."

And with that, Claudia left as quickly as she had come and Alexis walked calmly to check out her knife collection in the kitchen.

* * *

Kristina looked up and saw Lulu walking towards her.

"What's the matter," Kristina asked.

Lulu looked all serious.

"Did you know that creep Jerry followed you across the street?"

Kristina hadn't noticed and the idea of it just made her skin crawl.

"Is he still outside because if he is, I'm going to kick his ass."

Lulu shook her head.

"No, the creep took off," she said, "I told him to go away."

Kristina's brow furrowed.

"Why is he following me," she said, "I mean, I know he has the hots for Sam but I thought his bad taste in women would protect me."

Lulu shrugged.

"I guess not," she said, "No woman in PC is safe from Jerry."

"He must be up to something," Kristina said, "Maybe we should ask Jason about it."

"_Jason_?"

"Well yeah," Kristina said, "He's the hired hit guy in this city and if this creepo doesn't stay away from me…"

Lulu shook her head.

"Kristina, you don't want to get mixed up with Jason."

_Oh yes, she did!_

"Why…why not," Kristina said, trying to play dumb.

Lulu put her arm around Kristina.

"That's a long story best told to you over sodas at the diner," she said.

"Did you…he?"

Lulu shook her head.

"Oh no, never," she said, "My father would have had his hide and I don't think Jason would ever want to cross him."

"He can help me deal with Jerry and I'm going to ask him to do that, right now," Kristina said, determination flashing in her eyes.

Lulu saw her look and folded. She knew she couldn't talk the younger girl out of her mission but she could accompany to try to keep the damage to a minimum. So after they left the boutique without a single cool outfit, they walked off in search of the Ice Man.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12--Here's the latest installment of this FF story. Hope you like it and thanks for the feedback!

* * *

Lulu and Kristina walked down the streets of PC on a mission. Well, Kristina had decided to treat it that way, but Lulu just kept throwing her funny looks as they went to find Jason.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Lulu said, knowing that of course the younger girl had no clue.

Kristina looked up one street and down another.

"I know exactly what I want," she said, "and what I'm doing."

Lulu hesitated.

"Have you talked to your mother about this?"

Kristina suddenly turned on her.

"Don't even mention her name," she said, "if you do, I have to remember that she exists."

Lulu sighed at the anger which marred the teenager's otherwise ethereal face. Accelerated aging had been good to Kristina speeding her through childhood and puberty so fast she had been spared acne and mood swings...some of them anyway.

"She's not that bad," she said, "At least she's there for you when you need her."

Kristina snorted.

"And in my face when I don't."

"She just cares about you," she said, "She should. She's your mother."

"Maybe I'm adopted," Kristina said.

Lulu considered that. It certainly was possible, as very little that could happen was outside the realms of life in PC. After all, didn't Alexis give birth to a daughter and then forget about it for years? Nobody in PC knew who had fathered Sam, the con artist turned mobster moll turned home wrecker turned action hero but everyone had their own theories. Some believed she had been spawned by the devil in some unholy act of conception at the Catholic convent where Alexis had gone to school while others noticed that she bore more than a passing resemblance to a woman who had hung out with PC's own legendary family of the undead for a period of time years ago.

Frankly Lulu didn't give a damn. She just wished the tramp would keep her hands off of her brother, Lucky. Okay, so Lulu wasn't exactly thrilled that Lucky had returned to shacking it up with Lollipop Liz who had frolicked with her ex, Jason on the sofa and had an illegitimate son with him but she was a bit relieved that Lucky had come to some semblance of his senses.

At least he had ditched Sam who had broken his heart after she had maxed out all his credit cards.

"He's probably shooting pool at Coleman's bar," Kristina guessed.

Lulu frowned.

"Weren't you just there this morning?"

"Yeah," she said, "but Coleman kicked me out for being underage," she said, "but if I wait long enough, that shouldn't be a problem."

"True," Lulu said, "I can get you in there. I have some pretty good fake ID."

"Awesome," Kristina said, "We'd better get down there before he leaves."

So Lulu despite her better judgment accompanied Kristina to Coleman's bar.

* * *

Alexis wrung her hands as she waited for the next in a long line of PC's rejects to come ring her doorbell. With the exception of dear Robin, every visitor to her house had been a nightmare.

Her phone rang so she picked it up and looked at the Caller ID. She breathed a sigh of relief, which pulled her out of her latest hyperventilation attack.

"Hello, Diane."

"Alexis, I'm on my way back to PC," Diane said, "Max and I are waiting for the jet to be gassed up and then we'll be on our way."

"You're taking Sonny's Gulfstream?"

"Yes, it was so nice of him to loan it to us," Diane said, "It's pretty impressive. It's got two of the most important things, a master bedroom with a ceiling mirror and a wet bar."

"Don't forget the bullet holes," Alexis said.

"They add a nice touch actually," Diane said, "So are you going to be ready to go to court?"

Alexis drew a blank.

"What do you mean go to court?"

Diane sighed, wondering if she should just pick up a man in the airport to bring home to her frenemy to play with for a while.

"Alexis, surely you are facing arrest for the murder of the mayor's floozy," she said, "It's all over the television sets at the airports. Surely the reporters must be beating down your door."

"Excuse me," Alexis said, as she walked cautiously up to her window and pulled the drape aside. She looked out and sure enough, a cadre of reporters holding microphones and photographers were sitting on her front lawn.

"You're right," she said, sinking to the floor, "What will I do now?"

"Just calm down Alexis and go get your paper bag and take a few deep breaths…"

Alexis sighed.

"That won't work," she said, "I need Spinelli to get me some of his happy weed."

"Alexis, that's the last thing that you should be doing," Diane said, "You're PC's ultimate fallen woman driven to murder. That's the vision that the town's residents will see while drinking their morning coffee."

"Oh dear, I wonder if it's too late to think about taking that corporate job in Pine Valley with Chandler Enterprises."

"Now Alexis, we can get the fallen woman turned murderess to work for us _after_ you get acquitted by a jury…"

"I didn't kill anyone Diane let alone the mayor's skanky secretary," Alexis protested, "but then again I don't remember sleeping with the mayor so maybe I killed her and just forgot about it."

"That's a possibility," Diane said, gravely, "But we have to deal with the here and now and that's the fact that you will soon be on trial for murder."

"I've never been on trial for murder before," Alexis mused, "I mean I've killed a person here and there but I've never been prosecuted. Wait a minute, how can I be prosecuted. Aren't I the DA?"

"Alexis, you have to check your calendar to make sure you're still the DA," Diane said, patiently, "Your status is day to day."

"I know," Alexis said, "I wasn't the DA on Tuesday because I was a defense attorney or some other reason but I was on Wednesday."

"Alexis, I just want you to sit tight and don't talk to anyone about anything until I get back into town," Diane said.

Alexis gripped the phone tightly.

"Okay," she said, "Please hurry."

Alexis hung up the phone and went to the kitchen to make herself some tea that had been included in Robin's care basket but ran into the liquor cabinet on the way so instead, she took out some bourbon and poured herself a tall glass. Before she was able to sit down on the couch to kick back and enjoy it until the PC's version of keystone cops came to pick her up, the door bell rang again.

* * *

Kristina was still walking to the bar with Lulu to hunt down Jason when she saw him standing by a tree. No, he wasn't exactly standing, he was beating at the tree's trunk with his fists yelling some unintelligible words.

"Oh look, it's Michael Corinthos," she said, pointing him out to Lulu.

Lulu looked at the angry young man with dark brown hair and a lanky build.

"Didn't he used to have red hair," she said, "We used to call him Carrot Top."

"I don't remember," Kristina said, "but he sure looks upset."

Lulu sighed.

"That's from being shot by one of Sonny's mobster enemies," she said, "He was in a coma for at least a year and after Dr. Patrick rebuilt his brain, he came out of it angry at everyone."

"Maybe we should go over and say hi," Kristina said.

Lulu didn't look so sure.

"He might hurt us," she said, "Oh he won't mean to do so but they had to lock him up when he stayed over at Carly and Jax' house."

Kristina ignored Lulu and walked slowly towards Michael after tossing her hair back behind her shoulders with her manicured fingers. As she approached, he sensed her presence and turned around to face her. She hid her trepidation with a smile and he just stared at her.

"Michael, how are things going?"

He looked at her and shrugged.

"This tree pissed me off," he said.

"What did it do to you," Kristina asked, confused but fascinated at the same time.

"It got in my way," he said simply, then picked up a stick and started hitting it.

His raw anger which shone brightly through his animated face intrigued Kristina, appealing to her darker side that she had inherited from the unholy brew of genetic material belonging to the Corinthos and Cassadine family lines. Michael might be volatile due to his brain injury but his heritage consisted of mainly Quartermaine and Spencer blood that while an eccentric combination would probably prove to be less lethal in the long run.

"Michael…"

He stopped hitting the tree and turned around to face her.

"What," he said, "Kristina's your name right? You're my sister."

She nodded, though technically they weren't blood relatives. It was difficult to explain to others exactly how they were related.

"I know you," he said, "in fact, I have something to tell you."

She leaned closer.

"What?"

"You…I… we're supposed to go on the run together," he said.

Her jaw dropped. No, it couldn't be, she screamed inside. She had waited her whole life to be prepared for her rite of passage into PC's greater society by successfully completing her Summer on the Run but her partner was supposed to be some hot looking guy who reeked of danger and lust and drove a fast car, not her brother!

"It can't be," she said, weakly suddenly needing to sit down.

She would be the laughing stock of the town if word got out. Far from raising the bar for the ritual even beyond where Luke and Laura had set it, she would fade into obscurity as the poor little girl who was so pathetic at attracting men that only her skinny assed brother wanted to do the summer on the run. The whole sorry saga would be scribbled on the walls of every women's bathroom in town.

"Kristina, did you hear me," Michael said, putting down the stick.

"Yes," she said, faintly, "I just don't want to believe it."

His face filled with some of the anger it had before.

"What the hell are you complaining about," he said, "You should be honored to be paired with me."

She stamped her stiletto heel.

"I don't want my brother," she said, "I want a real man…like Jason."

And the minute that name slipped past her lips, Kristina knew she had hurt her brother deeply. He just gave her one forlorn look and then picked up the stick to start hitting the tree again. She and Lulu slunk away, their hearts heavy.

"You handled that well," Lulu said with a sigh.

As they headed off to continue their search for Jason, Michael watched them go. Depression competed with the rage that had set up residence in his blood. How could his own sister look down at him? He would show her, he would show everyone…if he could just get some better threads, a cool haircut and an awesome set of wheels. With his current allowance, he knew he couldn't get far either so he'd have to go out and get a job as a mobster messenger or something respectable. He had a lot of work to do and not much time to do it.

He didn't notice the shroud of fog that had swirled into the area, surrounding him while filling the air with a seductive scent. A blond woman wearing a trench coat stepped out of it.

He turned around and his eyes widened as he took in the blast from the past who purred to him…


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13--Here's the latest chapter to this FF story. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments.

* * *

Alexis opened the front door and made a face.

"Oh it's you."

He shook his head at her as he stepped into her house, obviously ignoring her expression of distaste as he usually did these days.

"Tsk, Tsk," Jerry said, "Can't you find it in your heart to forgive me for some of my…minor transgressions in our colorful history together?"

Alexis felt herself go momentarily weak as she always did when one of PC's residential sociopaths crept up to her and whispered sweet nothings in her ear. This time, she vowed, things would be different. This time she would be strong and render herself immune to the deadly charms of the men who usually brought her to her knees. This time…was that his warm breath tickling her earlobes?

She closed her eyes sighing.

"I don't even know what to call you," she said, already weakening beneath his gaze and loathing herself for it.

Jerry's eyes twinkled.

"You can call me anything you'd like in the moment of passion," he said, "You know the raw unbridled emotions that temporarily make you speechless and turn off that silly self-censoring part of your brain."

Alexis folded her arms.

"It's not going to work this time, Jerry or Craig or whatever name you are currently traveling under," she said.

"I can help you Alexis darling," he whispered seductively.

She didn't doubt that he could fix all of her problems but did she really want his kind of help? Did she really want to sell her soul to the Devil and pay for it by burning in the fires of Hell beneath PC? Dealing with her current problems through the use of incendiary devices could be very messy and wouldn't create much sympathy in the jury that decided her fate if she did wind up going on trial for murder. It was bad enough that the town's populace wanted to hang everyone with a drop of Cassadine blood on sight, never having forgiven her family for freezing the entire town in some twisted act of world dominance. Even worse, the female half of the town could never forgive her for knifing one half of the most drop dead gorgeous mobster twins to hit the town in recent years. Sure Luis Alcazar had his homicidal moments (who didn't?) but there wasn't a red-blooded woman in PC who didn't still fantasize about a sordid coupling with him and his brother, Lorenzo even though they were both dead and buried. In fact, she had done so herself, though more so with Lorenzo playing a starring role in her fantasies of romping between the satin sheets than his brother.

Not to mention that it was getting harder and harder to keep the Quartermaines out of the jury pools even as their numbers in PC became fewer and they seemed to enjoy sending people to the gas chamber for the most trivial reasons. If one of them wound up on her jury, she might as well set up the scaffold herself, because they would surely convict her on the basis that she had jilted Ned and broken his heart. As a result, Ned had been forced into a half-life of being caught in the manicured claws of his ex-wife Lois who played stage mother to their poor song bird of a daughter, Brook Lyn who had been committed to a mental institution as a result of her brief stay in PC. Someone would have to pay for that and she didn't want to be in their cross-hairs.

But Alex thought, she'd be damned if she was going to enter into a deal with the aforementioned devil, in more ways than one. Yes, Jerry or whatever his name was had a killer body and had swept her off her feet and had given her the best sex since…well the last psychopath she had slept with. Still, she had to place morals above earth-shattering orgasms and both of those had to play second fiddle to the welfare of her two daughters…oh wait, actually three of them. She could forgive herself for forgetting on occasion that she had a daughter in her twenties. First of all, she didn't even remember which sperm donor she had slept with when Sam had been conceived and besides, she didn't look like she could possibly have a daughter of that age. But somehow seeing Jerry standing in front of her, she remembered her oldest daughter with perfect clarity.

"You slept with Sam," she said.

He looked miffed but that brought her guard up even more because that is when Jerry proved to be the most dangerous and seductive of all.

"I believe you have me confused with your ex-husband," he said.

Alexis briefly fantasized about her cutlery collection just a few tantalizing yards away but she dismissed it. She was in enough trouble already for committing a murder that she didn't remember.

"You had sex with her when she was vulnerable," she said, "I can never forgive you for that."

Jerry's eyes narrowed.

"Is that what Samantha told you," he asked, "It's a lie. Not that I didn't want to, but we just never quite got down to it."

Alexis could have been shocked at his candor as most women would have been but she lived in PC and at least he was upfront about his amoral craving for Sam unlike some other people including her caddish ex-husband Ric.

"Alexis, my darling," he crooned, "I can take care of these people who create problems for you in your life."

She sighed, wishing for a brief moment that she had possession of Diane's leather whip. But then she remembered that the furry handcuffs hadn't held him back for that long. So she tried a skill that was entirely new to her, patience.

"Jerry," she said, "I have to solve my own problems and you have to go before anyone spots you here and runs off to tell the D.A.

"You are the D.A.," he reminded her, "That's part of what makes you…so sexy."

She folded her arms at him.

"I'm wise to your charms and your motives," she said, "and besides, I was a D.A. yesterday but I won't be one again until next week. I think I'm my own public defender today until Diane officially takes my case which I guess will be when I'm officially charged with someone's murder."

His smile dimmed.

"Alexis, you need me," he said, "so if you'll just think about it for a few…"

She pointed to the door, not wanting to him to see how her self-resolve hung by a thin thread.

"Out," she shouted.

He looked at her one last time and then he slunk out her front door. She looked back and forth down the street hoping that none of her neighbors had watched him leave. But alas, a pack of paparazzi had been parked on her front lawn and now followed the last bad boy she had promised herself she would ever sleep with like a flock of moths down the street.

* * *

Michael blinked his eyes and did a double take as he saw the blond woman step out of the fog which swirled around her, much as it did anyone who walked on the pier.

"Who the hell are you?"

If she were offended by his attitude, she didn't show it. She pulled her coat closer around her and smiled at him. He looked at her carefully, seeing something about the beautiful woman that seemed familiar. He tried to think of what that might be but it made his newly reconstructed brain hurt.

"Do I know you," he asked.

She smiled and flashed a hand accentuated by diamonds.

"Let's just say, we spent some time together when you were much younger," she said, then confusion tainted the radiance of her grin, "That wasn't all that long ago come to think of it."

"Were you a friend of the family," Michael said, "A maid, a nanny…"

She scowled.

"Oh God no," she exclaimed, "I had better things to do with my time than menial chores like mopping floors and wiping the faces of snot-nosed brats."

He nodded, digesting her words.

"So how do we know each other?"

She tilted her head.

"I was special to you and your brother, Morgan and your sister…Kristina."

He made a face.

"I just ran into her," he said, "She ran off upset because she and I…we're supposed to go on the run together and she doesn't want to go with her brother."

The woman nodded.

"I can understand that," she said, "The summer on the run is a very important rite of passage in a young girl's life. It's kind of like going to the prom with your brother. It just won't do."

"She looked at me like I was a total loser," he protested, "It made me mad."

The woman looked at the battered tree and the stick lying on the ground.

"I see," she said, suppressing a smile, "Well if you want, I could help you win your case with your sister so that she will be more than happy to go on the run or I can help you find someone else instead."

Hope filled Michael promising to replace some of the anger at least for a little while.

"Could you?"

She smiled broadly at him.

"Yes I..."

Suddenly Michael looked up and saw that his half-sister Kristina had returned. She almost looked apologetic, biting her lip.

"Michael," she said, "I came back to tell you that I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

He looked at her, noticing that indeed she seemed more than a little bit contrite. His heart softened.

"Kristina, it's all right," he said, "This woman's going to help me…She'll help us."

Kristina looked at the statuesque blond suspiciously.

"I don't know Michael," she said, "There's something about her…"

The woman smiled.

"I remember you," she said, "You were so…young."

Kristina folded her arms.

"I'm growing up now," she said.

"I can see that," the woman said, shaking her head, "You go away and disappear for a while…"

Kristina felt curious despite herself.

"Who are you and where did you come from," she asked.

The fog on the pier whirled around the woman some more, nearly hiding her again.

"My name is Faith," she said, "Faith Roscoe and I'm here to make all your dreams come true."

Kristina frowned.

"Like some sort of fairy godmother?"

Faith shrugged.

"I guess you could call me that," she said, crooking her finger, "Now come here and tell me what you want and I will make it happen."

Both Michael and Kristina looked at each other, wondering who would take the first step.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14---Here's the latest in this FF. I hope you enjoy it, thanks for reading and for the feedback!

* * *

Kristina looked at her brother uncertainly.

"Should we go with her," she said, "Something's telling me not to trust her."

Michael scowled.

"I trust her," he said, "Can't you see she's trying to help us?"

Kristina looked at the blond woman warily. She sensed she should know more about this mystery woman appearing in front of them as if she were their best friend. No matter how hard she tried to remember, she found that whatever memories she had compiled of Faith proved to be elusive. She sighed, she was having so many problems like that these days.

"I don't know…"

Faith smiled broadly.

"No Michael, Kristina's right to be cautious," she said, "I could be anybody. I could even be someone capable of kidnapping and murder."

Kristina yawned at that, so what else was new? Nearly everyone in PC had either kidnapped or murdered someone at some point in their lives and her own DNA was encoded a million times over courtesy of ancestors from the two families who had brought more carnage and mayhem to PC's shores than anyone else's. Both she and Michael for that matter, were ticking time bombs, biding their time before they too began decreasing the town's population. After all, look what had already happened to her former babysitter Lulu Spencer and she had yet to turn 21.

Obviously Michael's brain had been on ice for too long because his eyes widened.

"But you aren't," she said, "Are you? Not someone as beautiful as you could ever hurt anyone."

Kristina rolled her eyes, watching Michael's face soften, losing its angry, hardened edges. Every tree around them in P.C. breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they were safe for now.

"Michael," she said flicking her hair back," There's just something about her…"

Faith reached for her glittery purse and rummaged inside of it. She then gazed up at the teenage girl in front of her, carefully weighing her.

"You look like you could use some new threads," she said.

Kristina felt herself growing defensive.

"What," she said, "You making fun of my clothes?"

Faith shook her head.

"No, no dear," she crooned, "I just think that a beautiful girl like you needs a new look and I can help you with that."

Kristina thought about that. She had been looking for some new threads all day and hadn't found anything that suited her in this tired little town. Perhaps Faith really did want to help her for some less than twisted reason unlike most adults. Besides when it came to shopping, who was Kristina to look a gift horse in the mouth?

"Well okay," she said, "but how am I going to pay for everything? My mother is a tightwad and gives me the same allowance she did when I was five."

The older woman pulled out a stack of plastic, enough to make Kristina's eyes widen to twice their size and her mouth water.

"Money is no object," Faith purred, "Just consider me your…fairy godmother. "

Kristina shrugged. After all, it wasn't like an attraction to credit cards didn't run in the family. Look at Sam, who was a walking endorsement for them having maxed out a half dozen of PC's gallery of men all loaded with plastic. Still, since she'd exhausted the supply of wealthy men already, she had to go back to playing with plastic explosives.

"Okay," she said, "but I've tried every boutique in town and I can't find anything that's classy for a girl like me."

Faith waved her hand dismissively.

"Well this is PC so your choices are limited," Faith said, "I suggest we take a trip to the big city. There are plenty of top of the line clothing stores there."

Kristina nodded. She had never been to New York City, which might as well have been in the land of Oz as well as her overprotective shrew of a mother was concerned.

"So are we headed to the airport," she asked.

Faith smiled and her teeth glistened.

"We're in PC darling," she said, "Who needs planes to travel when all you need is a perfectly good flight of stairs?"

* * *

Alexis paced after her loser of an ex-boyfriend had left the building. Only that was beginning to become a pattern with her since she had a string of them going back to the Grecian island where the Cassadines slummed when they weren't out committing mayhem. After Diane got her acquitted of murder, she would have to seriously consider getting some counseling. But wait, PC didn't have any shrinks ever since its only practicing psychiatrist had been committed to an asylum after he claimed that he had an evil twin brother. But that had taken place in that _other_ PC that had been shrouded in darkness most of the time before it had mysteriously vanished one day taking a host of the living and undead with it. Alexis didn't bother herself with those little details that didn't directly involve her. She had enough to deal with trying to fix her own train wreck of a life.

The door bell rang and she flipped her hair back and then rushed to answer it. To her immense relief, Diane stood there looking at her oddly.

"Alexis, what are you wearing?"

Alexis looked down and noticed that she was still in her bathrobe.

"It's been a long day," she said, sinking in a chair.

Diane sighed.

"Tell me about it," she said, "I didn't get a wink of sleep the whole time I was in Vegas. Max is just such a relentless sex machine and I was running out of…props."

Alexis frowned.

"Is that what you came over here for to rub your sex life in my face," she said, "I'm about to go on trial for murder."

Diane rolled her eyes.

"Alexis, you haven't even been charged yet," she said, "Who died?"

She started to stay something then stopped.

"You know that's a good question," she said, "I don't know…someone connected with the mayor."

Diane brightened.

"Oh, it's probably just his mistress," she said, "His other one besides you."

Alexis wrung her hands.

"I did not sleep with him," she said.

Diane folded her arms.

"Pictures don't lie," she said, "and from what I saw, it looked like you had a great time."

Alexis blanched.

"Where did you see them," she said, "You just got into town five minutes ago."

"They were on the front page of every newspaper at the airport gift shop," Diane said, "At least they captured your good side."

Alexis sighed.

"At least I don't have to worry about being blackmailed anymore."

Diane looked around the living room.

"Where's Kristina?"

Alexis shrugged.

"I don't know," she said, "At the mall I guess with her friends."

"She doesn't have any friends."

Alexis threw up her hands.

"Is that my fault," she said, "I'm sure any antisocialism came from her dad's side of the family."

Diane tilted her head.

"And as for any homicidal tendencies, I guess that's anyone's guess."

Alexis nodded reluctantly.

"That's true," she said, "Although I don't know whether Sonny's body count even since he's hired Jason can even rival an underachieving Cassadine."

"I'm sure Kristina is going to grow up to be a beautiful young woman with a few…quirks."

Alexis put her head in her hands.

"She's growing up so fast," she sighed, "Why just yesterday…"

"I know she was a little girl," Diane said, "but people grow up fast in this town. It must be something in the water."

"What about Molly?"

"Oh she's still the same," Alexis said, "She's playing in her room with her dolls."

"No word from her father yet?"

Alexis made a face.

"Oh you know Ric," she said, "Every time he doesn't get to play with Sonny, he throws a snit and then disappears for a while."

"He'll be back like a bad fungus soon enough so stay strong."

"Well, I'm not going to let him in the door this time," Alexis vowed.

Diane nodded approvingly.

"Good girl," she said, "and speaking of men, I met a nice guy at the airport…"

Alexis threw up her hands.

"No thanks," she said, "I think I'm more than capable of finding my own boyfriends and nice men need not apply."

Diane didn't say anything, just shaking her head at her friend. She prepared to get ready to leave to run back to her bachelorette pad where Max laid waiting in handcuffs where she left him.

But then the doorbell rang again.

* * *

Meanwhile in the bedroom, a little girl with dark flowing locks of hair played with her sister's castoff dolls. Humming to herself, she pulled out a pocket knife she had lifted when her mother hadn't been looking and stabbed it into their plastic eyes of each doll in turn until they all gazed back at her sightlessly. Off to the side, a shadowy figure nodded in approval.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15---Here's the latest chapter of this FF. I'm sorry it's been so long. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!

* * *

"Molly honey," Alexis said, while rushing around the kitchen, "Eat your peas darling."

"Yes mother," her youngest daughter said dutifully, picking up a spoon and digging into them.

Alexis smiled. It was so wonderful having one daughter who was so easy to handle, who didn't grow up into a surly teen in the blink of an eye or burn a trail through the collection of eligible and not so eligible men in P.C. including her mother's husbands and boyfriends. Molly was just so…normal and normal meant that Alexis could stay grounded herself. She walked over to her daughter who was busy scooping up the last several peas and kissed her on the top of her head.

She had to hurry up and get ready or she would be late to her own arraignment. Mac, the police commissioner, had called her up the night before and had informed her that she had been indicted for murder. When she asked who she had killed, he said he couldn't say but he would give her the full details when she arrived in court. The attorney side of Alexis wanted to press for further details about the case against her but the woman side of her persona idly wondered why she couldn't wind up in the sack with a wonderful level-headed man like Mac Scorpio at least once in her life.

Shaking her head, she resolved to stop thinking about men altogether and focus on herself for a while.

"Mommy…"

She looked back at where Molly had finished her vegetables and was sipping from her glass of milk.

"What is it darling," she cooed.

"Where's Kristina?"

Alexis frowned. Damn, she knew she had forgotten something. Like where her middle daughter was, especially since she hadn't come home last night. Like she had told Diane, she had assumed she had been hanging out at the mall, if not with friends, with someone who would keep her company.

"Honey…I don't know," Alexis said, "Maybe she's at school?"

Yes, surely that had to be why she hadn't come to breakfast but then again, she hadn't come home last night either. Alexis stopped her self-chastising in its tracks. Blaming herself for her daughters' problems wouldn't solve anything. She had to keep herself from going to the gas chamber before she could handle anything else.

"Now Granny H always says that you have to focus on the greater prize," Molly murmured to herself, while spooning some food into her doll's closed mouth, "Just like Mommy says."

Alexis' internalized radar went into overdrive. She forced a smile on her face and brushed her hair back from her face.

"Molly, honey, who are you talking to?"

Molly batted her eyes at her mother and smiled nicely.

"To Sophie, my doll," she said, "She won't eat her vegetables."

Alexis felt relief fill her and chided herself for the thought that had strayed inside her mind, a dreadful one that perhaps Molly had inherited the dreadful Cassadine curse after all. She strolled back to the sink to rinse some dishes that had been sitting in the sink the last few days. Looking at her watch, she believed she had enough time to tidy up the kitchen a little bit, polish her cutlery collection and get Molly dressed before the babysitter arrived to keep her entertained for the next few hours.

After checking these items off of her list, she would drive down to the courthouse and find out what all this murder business was all about. She did have a few hours to do some research before her trial started and she wanted to be ready.

"How are they going to try me for murder," she wondered out loud, "when I'm the DA in this town or at least the last time I checked?"

"Come on Sophie," Molly said, as she strolled on by, "Let's go have tea with Natasha."

Alexis blinked and her mouth went dry.

_Natasha?_

_

* * *

  
_

Kristina and Michael walked down Fifth Avenue in New York City with their new best friend, Faith. She had been true to her word and any time they found something in a shop they liked, she whipped out her magic piece of plastic and next thing they knew, they were leaving the store with designer shopping bags in their hands. Kristina felt like she had just stepped into one of her favorite movies, _Pretty Women _only without the hooker stuff.

The three of them stepped outside of Saks, with two bags in each hand and Kristina turned to smile at Faith for being such a cool fairy god mother when her eyes blinked. Twice. For when she had glanced at the blond woman with the alabaster skin, she noticed something different about her. Faith sparkled as if a sheen of fine diamonds coursed through her skin. Kristina became mesmerized despite her attempt to maintain cool nonchalance.

"What's that," she said.

Faith looked at her, her eyes glowing.

"What's what?"

"On your skin," Kristina said, "It's so beautiful, it shimmers. It's like really cool."

An indefinable emotion flashed through Faith's eyes which she then covered with a smile.

"Oh, it's just some new makeup I picked up at Montgomery Ward," she said, "I could show you some later if you'd like."

Kristina shrugged.

"Okay, that might be kind of rad."

Michael just couldn't keep his eyes off the vision in front of him in the low cut dress which skimmed just above her knees and the last drop of rage dissipated from his brain as if it had never existed . Michael felt like he had never felt before, in the presence of a real woman rather than the silly girls who giggled in his high school classes all day.

"That hat looks smoking on you Michael," Faith cooed, "You look like a real gangster dude."

Michael smiled.

"I want to be one when I grow up like my Dad," he said, "Well not my real dad who was a total loser but my step dad who's so cool."

Then he looked at Faith as if he were trying to remember something, as if looking at her for the first time. Faith looked back, licking her lips, wondering if his erstwhile memory would flash a vision of the last time he had seen her. But he still looked at her as if she were an exotic beauty, not the woman who kidnapped him and his siblings.

"Michael, if you stick with me," she said, "You'll be better than your dad ever was. You could truly rule P.C. some day."

He sighed, because that's what he wanted. Or so he thought, but last week he wanted to be like his great-grandfather Edward Quartermaine and the week before that…well, maybe he'd remember what eventually.

"I need some perfume," Kristina decided, "Let's go to this store here. I've heard they have a bitchin' collection."

Faith smiled widely.

"Let's do," she said, "Oh this is so much fun. I'm sure we can come up with all sorts of things to do during our stay."

The three of them entered the store without a care in the world.

* * *

Edward Quartermaine stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom and grumbled to himself while he fidgeted with his tie. He had recovered from the latest attempt by his ingrate of a daughter Tracy to poison him with the Thanksgiving turkey so that she could get her hands on what she believed was her inheritance. He shook his head at her stupidity, even as he secretly admired her brazenness. Still, when was the last time the Quartermaines had actually eaten a Thanksgiving turkey? His clan screwed up Thanksgiving dinner every year and then after putting out the fire so the house wouldn't burn down, dialed up Pizza Hut to send them a couple of large ones.

Tracy had gotten wiser this year and had tried to spike the anchovies on the pizza so he had fallen quite ill but he had rebounded and now felt sprightly enough to get dressed in his best threads and head off to jury duty at the courthouse in downtown P.C. He shook his head when thinking about her. If Tracy kept it up, he might actually think about putting her back in the will.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it," he said, wanting to tell them to piss off but he didn't dare.

Lately he had been getting unsettling visions of his late wife, Lila who would appear before him in the ethereal wearing her wedding dress and wagging her finger at him any time he uttered a profane word or said anything harsh about any of his children. Whenever he was about to lose his temper and say something reckless, something liberating, she would appear before him and tell him no before evaporating like a puff of smoke.

"It's me, Rebecca," a woman said from the other side of the door.

Rebecca? Was there anyone in that family by his name? There might have been at the table last night after the latest food fight and someone had graciously allowed her to spend the night with everyone else who passed out drunk at the dinner table. But the next day, his memory had grown hazy. Still, she bore a close resemblance to another Quartermaine but he couldn't remember which one. Then again, who could be expected to remember every member of this dysfunctional family at his advanced age?

"What is it," he said, playing along until he could figure out exactly who she was and how many stock shares she wanted.

"Alice says she has your breakfast," Rebecca said, "You've got to eat it before you leave for jury duty."

"I can't believe my name came up again," Edward grumbled, "I just served on one several months ago."

"It's a big murder case," Rebecca said, "I've been reading the papers. Alexis Davis is going on trial for killing someone."

His eyebrows shot up.

"Usually she's either prosecuting someone or defending cold blooded killers," Edward said, "Or doing both at the same time."

Rebecca shrugged.

"Whatever," she said, "She's killed some guy and they're having the trial right after the arraignment to get it all done before the holidays."

Edward tossed up his hands.

"Great, just what I need, another murder trial," he said, "But at least we can all be grateful that she never married Ned after all and killed him."

"Who's Ned," Rebecca asked.

He looked at her, still not sure who he was looking at.

"Oh never mind," he said, "I've got to get going and think of some excuse I haven't used before to get out of serving on the jury."

She shrugged.

"Whatever," she said, shaking her head before she went to find out where they kept the keys to the dragster in the driveway. She didn't want to keep Nicky, P.C.'s very own brooding but totally hot prince waiting.

* * *

Alexis drove to the courthouse after she said goodbye to Molly and the sitter. As she drove down the tree-lined streets near the waterfront, she wondered again where her daughter might be. Maybe she should take a few minutes to look for her. She rejected that thought when she approached the courthouse and saw the mob in front of it, waving signs and doing what, setting something on fire and burning it. She peered closer. It looked like…no it couldn't be…wait a minute, it was…they were burning her in effigy. Were they insane? Was she?

She gaped in shock at the sight just before she crashed into the limousine parked in front of her.


	16. Chapter 16

Oh it's been forever since I updated this story! Hope that you like it.

* * *

Alexis stared at the judge, her hands folded not believing what he had just told her.

Her murder trial could not possibly be starting that morning. Sure it had seemed like forever since she arrived at the courthouse and smashed into the limousine that had grabbed her usual parking spot but she had not had any time to prepare her own defense. In fact, she still wasn't even sure whose murder she was being tried for in Port Charles poor excuse for a judicial system.

She looked around towards the smug prosecutor sitting at his table, his hands clasped together and resting on it. A female investigator whispering into his ear. She looked at her own table and saw the chairs empty. _Where the hell was Diane when she needed her?_

Oh yeah, her so-called best frememy was no doubt shacked up or even shackled to the bed of her on and off again boyfriend, Max the bodyguard while the life of her client hung at the mercy of a judge who looked young enough to be her son. For all she knew, he could be her son. After all, she had given birth to a daughter and for most of her life, it had slipped her mind probably because she had been so busy doing other really important things.

She tried to plant a smile on for the judge to cover up the apprehension and angst which threatened to consume her and shatter what little self-control she had left. Until she caught eye of the jury and saw him sitting there already in judgment of her, with her life in his hands. Oh my God, were the words that hit her first.

Alexis turned around to protest to the judge.

"You cannot put that man on my jury," she said, "I demand a jury of my peers and that man is no peer of mine. That man almost became my father in law."

The judge lifted the horn rimmed glasses off of his noise and looked over at the juror.

"Mr. Quartermaine, do you wish to say anything in response?"

Edward had sat in the box fiddling with his tie, thinking of an excuse, any excuse to get out of this obligation that seemed to be foisted on him once a month. He really had to take up this issue with the clerk of the courts. After all, each denizen of Port Charles proper was only supposed to be called to jury duty once annually and he currently had been selected to oversee his third trial and it hadn't even hit the summer period. And then he would really be in trouble then because all of the town's youth would be on the run after either killing their elders or being framed for killing them and even Mac's poor excuse for a police force would catch up to them eventually. Of course, that would mean more trials, more pontificating by the same stable of PC legal eagles and more last minute confessions on the stand to long buried secrets that of course had nothing actually to do with the trial.

A waste of his valuable time, Edward considered it. The only reason he had served during the last trial was to do his best to make sure that his daughter, Tracy was convicted of trying to kill him by injecting poison in the anchovies on the Thanksgiving pizza. He knew the only way he could send her to prison on that charge would be to serve on the jury. And it worked out quite well, as he sat on the box until the prosecutor had called him to the witness stand to testify to the court. Afterward, he slipped back into the box and the proceedings continued uninterrupted.

Of course, Tracy's attorney, Alexis, had protested the unorthodox nature of the proceedings of having the victim of an attempted murder both testify and serve on the jury in the same trial but the judge just threw Alexis a bored look and then told her to sit down and be quiet. Edward beamed and received a standing ovation from the audience while writing out a check for the installment of gold plating on all the judges' chairs. Maybe in this town you couldn't buy a judge directly but you could pay for their seats.

But now Edward stood up, his smile wide.

"The only peers this women has are the other murderous branches of the poison laden tree called the Cassedines."

Then he sat down again.

Alexis just stared at the judge from where she stood, so certain for the first time that she was heading to the gas chamber.

* * *

Jason and Sam raced into the courthouse, eager to tell her mother, Alexis that they would work diligently to find the evidence that would clear her. Jason, the pragmatist in the duo did have a question to ask.

"Who did she kill this time anyway?"

Sam stopped in her tracks and wrinkled her brow.

"You know, I don't really know," she said, "I didn't see a name on the affidavit, just that she was being charged for murder."

Jason scratched his head.

"That seems strange to put someone on trial without naming the victim."

Sam shrugged, and then stuck her hands in the pockets of her baggy pants.

"Oh I don't know," she said, "With my mother, there are so many bodies, it's hard to keep track."

Jason nodded. He felt like such an underachiever compared to Port Charles' Black Widow. Even with guns blazing in both hands and a snarl on his face, his body count had still fallen far short. He inflated his numbers whenever asked, but felt shame permeate through his addled brain and his tin heart each time. Still, he had more hits on his Face Book page than any other action figure in Port Charles, even more than Johnny.

Sam's face softened.

"Oh Jason, I know we're supposed to be running around to save the day for my mother," she said, stroking his arm, "But I just got to have you…now…right here."

She grabbed his body and started groping him, and he captured his lips with his own and they were so lost in their own lust that they didn't notice Faith walking by with Michael or Kristina. Not that they would have recognized Michael on the street because he looked so different than he had that morning. He had become quite the chameleon in his accelerated life.

"Oh yeah baby," Jason groaned, as they deepened their embrace.

Faith just recoiled when she saw them. Okay, Jason could be hot with a wardrobe adjustment here and there but Sam, utterly hopeless. When she set up her matchmaking services, she would most definitely give Jason a call.

Michael and Kristina just looked at each other.

"They need to get a room," Kristina said, "I'm sure Uncle Jax can front them one at his hotel if they can't pay."

Michael just glowered, feeling his anger return. All his life he had lived in Jason's shadow wanting to be like him and now he had landed this hot babe, in Sam. Ever since his mother had hooked up with clean-cut mogul Jax, she had enforced this serious curfew on him and had taken away his magazine collection. Now she wanted him to go to military school.

Kristina pulled out her lip gloss and fixed up her mouth. If her mother was going on her trial, then at least one of her daughters had to look her best…in face the paparazzi showed up en masse. She had no intention of ending up with her eyes blacked out on the "worst dressed" list that her older sister lived on ever since she had first arrived.

Faith just looked at the both of her charges and sighed. So much about them hadn't been fully formed, molded and in the right hands…they could be formidable members of her new army. First things first, she had to win their trust and being teens, the unlimited shopping spree in New York City had mostly accomplished that. But Alexis had never mastered the important skill of the fingerprint free murder and once again, wound up on the wrong side of the courtroom and that both complicated her plans yet afforded her opportunities as well. She purred to her newest protegees.

"Michael…Kristina…the courtroom awaits…"

As they walked towards the chambers, a woman who looked like Diane whizzed on past them and through the double doors without a single word. Then came the mysterious older woman wearing the veil around her face and Faith nodded approvingly, because what would a trial be without at least one of them?

She pursed her lips, forced a smile on her face and then the three of them walked into the courtroom.


	17. Chapter 17

Oh, I haven't updated this FF in forever. Sorry! Hope you enjoy it and thanks for the feedback!

* * *

Alexis didn't notice the woman sitting in the backroom wearing the dark veil until the third day of trial.

Her mind had just been too preoccupied with other more important things. Like the fact that she surely would be convicted of murder and sentenced to the gas chamber by the end of the sweeps month.

Like the fact that her attorney Diana had just been caught by the judge in her chambers while dressed in leather and being spanked by her boyfriend and bodyguard of mobster Sonny, _Maximilian. _

Like the fact that she had just misplaced her daughter Molly and had remembered three hours later.

Like the fact that her no good tramp of a secret daughter Sam had taken off with Jason somewhere.

Like the fact that…what was the name of her other daughter again? The one that had grown into a moody teenager overnight and hung out with some creepy woman she couldn't quite place instead of staying home and doing her schoolwork?

To call herself freaked out when she ran into Diane paying off her contempt of court charge with a credit card would be an understatement.

"How could you," Alexis hissed, "If you had an itch to be scratched, did it have to be in the judge's chambers?"

Diane tucked her credit card back in her purse.

"I mean I can understand if it was my daughter Sam," Alexis continued, "but you're my best friend, well my best from the sisterhood and you're supposed to be defending me in a murder trial."

Diane whipped out a cigarette and lit up.

"Relax Alexis, seriously you need to go out and do something to relax, get laid, anything…"

Alexis clenched her hands into tight fists and rolled her eyes.

"My nonexistent sex life is not the issue here," she said, "though it's not going to get any better if I get sentenced to death."

Diane blew out some smoke.

"Would I let that happen," she said, "the case is open and shut and we'll get you off in no time."

Alexis fought to control herself.

"Get me off," she said, "I still don't know who I supposedly murdered…well besides Luis and his twin brother, what's his name?"

Diane's brows lifted and Alexis gasped.

"Oops, you weren't supposed to know about that one."

Diane rolled her eyes.

"Alexis…sweetheart, you're not supposed to keep deep dark secrets from your defense attorney."

The other woman sighed.

"It's really no big deal…I thought it was Helena gas lighting me with that horrible Luis and I made a mistake…"

"Where's the body?"

Alexis shrugged.

"I hired Jason to take care of it and he said he did."

Diane took some more drags and then stubbed out her cigarette, wishing she had her flask of brandy right now. She picked up her purse.

"Come on, we'd better get back in the courtroom before the judge puts out warrants on us."

* * *

Sam and Jason untangled themselves from each other, having been caught in another spontaneous bout of passion.

"Aren't we supposed to be looking for the real killer to get my mother sprung?"

Jason adjusted his clothes and tossed her one of his blank looks. Damn he just drove her wild beyond reason when he did that.

"We don't even know who she killed yet."

Sam frowned.

"Yeah that's a bit strange don't you think," she said, "Usually they tell a murder defendant the name of the victim. At least that's what happened to me."

In most cities perhaps but then again Port Charles wasn't like other cities and had its own rules and its own population who routinely broke them. They left the closet and Sam looked around the empty lobby of the courthouse in confusion.

"Where's this courtroom again," she said, "They all look alike."

Jason concentrated really hard trying to remember.

"It's up one of these flights of stairs."

"Which one," she said, "I mean I don't want to pick the wrong stairs and wind up in some jungle in Brazil."

Jason couldn't argue with that so they studied them all carefully for a long moment and then saw Edward walking by.

"Hey look it's old man Quartermaine," Sam said suddenly, "He's on the jury isn't he?"

Jason shrugged.

"He's on every jury."

That dilemma solved, they followed Edward who led them to the holy grail of Department 75, where the trial of the week took place.

* * *

Lulu bounced into the last row of the courtroom dressed in her poodle skirt and her hair in a nice shiny pony tail just the way Johnny Wonderful liked it. That's what she called him because they had finally hooked up after she had fallen for yet another guy who had turned out to be her half brother. Since Luke had spent years bumming around the world when life in PC had become just too much, he had left a trail of mostly male children behind like the trail of stones left by Hansel and Gretel in the mysterious forest.

Blaine, Cecil, Dirk and Lyle had all made their way slowly to town as if following a mysterious pied piper who probably was some loser guy trying to get back at the Spencers for a list of imagined and real sins. It had completely shattered her illusions about her parents, Luke and Laura, being one of those all-time love affairs for the ages. No, while her mother had deeply loved her father, he had turned out to be just another heel sowing his oats all over the planet while Laura had sunken deeper into her catatonia. Oh yeah, until some mysterious force brought life back into her again and all of a sudden he remembered she existed and played doting husband again.

But Lulu just didn't buy it.

She had met an assortment of good looking guys all carrying duffel bags over their shoulders and looking scruffy who dropped off the bus or the ship in PC in search of their fathers.

She of course wanted so very much to help them and in the process…maybe one of them would be the one to light her fire. But somehow they all wound up telling similar stories about the same frizzed out blond man with poor taste in clothes and a healthy dose of wanderlust and she realized the truth. Just in time so far, at least in that regard the fates had been kind.

The latest humiliation had been when she and Dirk had been making at the Point overlooking the catacombs and she had found out almost too late during idle chitchat that his father Lucas Spinhead and her father had been one in the same!

But Johnny Wonderful had been there to pick up the ashes of her love life and hope sprung anew as he took her out on the night scene bypassing of course the seedy waterfront to all the hot dance spots.

"Excuse me…"

Lulu looked up and made a face.

Once again Brenda with too many surnames had shown up to steal the show, away from the murder trial. Sure, Alexis might be on trial for her life, some middle aged chick with a bent for leather might be defending her. Edward once again owned the jury box and the judge looked a little familiar.

And most importantly, she had shown up in her best poodle skirt not really sure what she was doing there. The prettiest girl in the room, the one everyone surely would be looking at especially since Carly, Olivia, a host of newcomers whose names she couldn't remember and Brooklyn clearly had other places to be today.

Okay Kristina was here but Lulu could wipe the floor with her.

But Brenda what's her name, she was in a whole different category, she occupied a tier above the rest of all PC women. Lulu didn't know why because it had been before her time, after all she had just been born like eight years ago.

Brenda paid no attention to the peasants around her but smoothed out her shimmery man-killing dress before taking her seat. Lulu just rolled her eyes at the sight, before settling down to watch the proceedings.

Then she blinked her eyes unable to believe what she saw. Diane being carted away by Mac's deputies in handcuffs and she looked like she enjoyed it!

But all eyes remained focused on Brenda to see what she would do or say next. Lulu had heard through the PC grapevine that she had crashed Carly and Jax's gala and nearly got into it with her over him. Lulu thought that was just plain silly. Jax was cute and all in an Aussie surfer kind of way but Brenda had her pick of the town's studs right now and Jax just wouldn't make the top cut.

Brenda just sat there not saying a word and when she pulled out her lipstick for a touch up, the courtroom hushed.

* * *

Alexis glared at the judge.

"How could you do this to my attorney," she said, "I'm on trial for my life here."

The judge shook her head.

"You should have thought about that when you iced the victim in cold blood."

Alexis blanched.

"I don't even know who I supposedly killed," she said, "and why are you picking sides anyway?"

The judge looked at her without blinking.

"Because you murdered my husband," she said.

Alexis looked at her in shock and then she realized that the woman who stood in judgment over her fate did look kind of familiar.

"You….you it can't be…"

"Yes, I'm Elena Alcazar…I'm Luis' wife."

Alexis just looked at her as the room started spinning round and round and round and she fell on the floor in a dead faint. Edward the jury foreman looked down at the prostrate woman and then picked up his cellphone to call for some pizza delivery.


	18. Chapter 18

Too much apple cider but another update...hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!

* * *

The strong stench of whisky and something not as easy to identify awakened Alexis from her hysteria fueled stupor.

Various shapes began to form again around where she lay on some uncomfortable sofa. Wait a minute, had she fallen asleep at her shrink's office again? She turned her head wildly, hoping that her eyes would fall upon something familiar.

Her vision became more focused as more of the scent of alcohol and some really cheap men's cologne began to clear out her brain of all the trivial stuff that had been forced into it by people who were unduly focused on anything besides the fact that right now, in PC proper, she was fighting for her life.

She narrowed her eyes on one shape, taller than the others and her heart leapt. Was that Mac, the latest love of her life, the one that she had engaged in heavy flirtation and verbal whiplash every few months or so with nothing really of substance in between? Oh wait, no could it be her cad of an ex-husband, accidental father of her youngest daughter, the one child she didn't have to waste time worrying about? Her heart fluttered for a nanosecond as it always did until her rational side reminded her that this charmer was also the man who had rolled on her favorite carpet with her oldest daughter that she remembered, Sam.

Oh wait, maybe that had been Sonny who did that…they just all ran together in one blob after awhile. After all, they had all come to her with the same list. Dark, brooding, obsessed with a mysterious woman, perhaps their mother, damaged by their fathers, in competition with their brothers and all perpetual bad boys. Shakespeare may have been an incredibly talented writer but an appallingly bad matchmaker.

Not to mention they all lusted after her oldest known daughter but anyway the affairs with men that lit her fire in PC always stuck to the following list which she kept hidden in the drawer into the kitchen next to the knives.

Engage in courtship by sparring not with swords but verbal wit…check

Expressing reciprocal hatred while ripping each other's clothes off….check

An awkward morning after where they swear it won't happen again…check

Flunk the most important of tests…check

At least, Jerry hadn't gotten her pregnant.

Oh no wait, this guy had pointy brows and an angular face…and a pair of horns, that mean he had to be Cassadine. Which one, Victor, Stavros, Stefan, Tony, Fredrick, Hans, Leonardo…yeah most of this hall of fame from her warped family tree were either dead or locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane but down and even dead in her family didn't necessarily mean out.

Wait a minute…the eyebrows were bushy which reminded her of her glutton for punishment boyfriend Ned from her very brief "nice guy" period or her BFF Jax who she hung out with in between bad relationships. But neither of them wore such an obnoxious scent like the one that threatened to choke her right now. Now wait a minute here…concentrate Alexis…Focus.

And then his face became crystal clear right in front of her.

"Hi darling…."

His drawl resonated through her memory and then through her body which hummed even as her mouth wretched nearly bad enough to send her to the nearest receptacle. Memories of lingerie rose petals everywhere and champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. That and the realization that he had been the only man not to covet Sam had put him on the top of her organizer after they had gone out on their only date.

"COLEMAN?"

The man who made women weep in awe and very often gratitude all over town graced her with one of his sexiest looks, as he had done for her one lonely night she had shown up to shoot pool after the charges had been dropped at her for killing the mayor's dog.

But now, what had been fine when she had been slumming in his dive certainly wasn't appropriate in public when she was well known as one of PC's most respectable attorneys and keenest legal minds. So much so that once she had served as the prosecutor and the defense attorney in the same trial, which just happened to be her own.

The irritatingly sexy creature in front of her with the bushy brows that resembled a feline cat more than a man just made her wildly excited during a time she needed to exercise the most control. Diane still hadn't returned from being tossed in the slammer for some unknown crime and here she sat, about to go back into the courtroom for a public exercise in humiliation unless she figured out a plan fast. It would indeed add insult to injury and to a really bad day if the tabloids got wind of her wild night with PC's most enigmatic bar owner and incriminating photos of them were splashed all over the front pages in front of her jury.

Especially since whenever she looked over at the foreman Edward Quartermaine, she read in his eyes, _burn baby burn_.

At least with Coleman the words had a whole different meaning.

* * *

Sam stuck another piece of gum to add to the wad in her mouth as she looked over where Jason was trying to pick the lock on the door of a courtroom with everything in the tiny arsenal of tools he carried in his belt. God, sometime it was like consorting with a super hero, she sighed. She watched him for a moment, missing the entrance of Robin into the lobby until the perky doctor carrying a wooden basket had stopped just in front of her.

She lazily put her hand on her hip of her droopy pants and shot the other woman the eye.

"What's up Robin?"

The doctor just smiled at her cheerfully, her daughter holding onto her coat from behind her. Sam frowned, noticing the little girl for the first time.

"I'm here to visit Alexis and give her some much needed nourishment," she said, pulling the towel off the basket sending some truly delicious aromas in the air.

Sam's mouth dropped open and she flipped some hair off of her face.

"Yeah…well…Jason and I were trying to find her and…well we got distracted…"

Robin nodded.

"I see…well I've got chicken noodle soup, herbal tea, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, chicken strips, bubble bath, a pedicure kit…some fuzzy handcuffs…"

Sam's brows rose.

"Oh no wait, those are for her attorney," she said, "Along with this nicely frosted ginger cake."

Sam folded her arms.

"You put a file in it right so she can break out?"

Robin looked horrified, her rosy cheeks suddenly ashen.

"Why would I do such a thing," she asked, "It's just cake…from a family recipe."

Sam rolled her eyes and counted as far as she could with her fingers.

"Yeah let's look at this family of yours…Scorpio what's his name…spy…Anna who….spy…and you went with Jason here before he really got hot and he can spy…so yeah, a cake…sure I believe that…"

Robin looked like she were about to cry.

"Why do you say such things," she said, "My parents shielded me from all that sordid stuff by dropping me in a cabbage patch so Mac could find me…and my alien friend…ET…"

"That was a movie Robin, not real life."

Robin just shook her head at it all, placed the cloth back over her basket and shuffled off. Sam just stuck more gum in her mouth and looked over at Jason, still struggling with the lock, his face intense, sweat beading his brow, his hair sticking straight up as it had since the car accident that turned him in a split second from a cute nerdy med student into James Dean, Marlon Brando and Lurch all into one.

She might not have a high school diploma or a job but she had landed the hottest guy in town.

* * *

Sonny stopped by the bathroom at the courthouse where he had dropped on by because that's where the action seemed to be this week. He hadn't seen his son Michael in a while and Morgan had been shipped off by Carly and Jax to military school so he had some time on his hands in between acquisitions involved with his (cough) coffee importing (cough) business. What better place to be?

He parked in front of the mirror running his comb just right through his hair, fixing it just so while he decided to practice some lines he had been working on lately.

"You are dead to me. You are dead to me. You are dead to me. You are dead to me. You are so dead to me."

"Excuse me?"

He looked up to see Johnny Wonderful come into the bathroom, the man who had been dating some chick he once ran with that fathered one of his many children….what's his name…oh it would come to him. For some reason, his illegitimate male children all showed up in PC with aliases.

"I'm just getting ready to see the trial…"

Johnny nodded as he whipped out his own comb to stir his mousse-enriched locks into just the right shape.

"Oh yeah…Lulu is sitting in right now…in her sexy as all get out poodle skirt," he said, "I really think it's the real thing this time unlike…"

Oh Sonny didn't want to hear any further so he shot the younger man one of his deadliest looks one that would make a cobra shrivel up and die. Johnny just kept on talking.

"Yeah…that thing she does with her hands…you know you've dated a Spencer…you married one."

Sonny thought back a moment, oh yeah Carly, she had been related to Luke hadn't she been? It was so hard to keep all the interwoven, gnarled family trees in PC

Suddenly the door opened and the bailiff came in.

"Mr. Corinthoes," he said, "You're due on the witness stand now."

Sonny just mouthed a question, pointing at his chest.

"Yeah you," the bailiff continued, "Now let's get a move on…"

And with a final look at Johnny, Sonny pulled his trench coat around him and followed the bailiff.


	19. Chapter 19

The latest update of this FF is up, thanks for reading and the feedback…

* * *

Sonny walked down the aisle of the courtroom and everyone looked at him as he ambled down to take his place on the witness stand. Suddenly, Alexis jumped out of her chair, blocking his path. He just stopped and just gave her one of his lethal stares, the kind that would make Satan cross himself. She should have collapsed and gone prostrate on the floor inside a PC minute.

She gazed at him dreamily instead.

"Oh Sonny, you make me burn for you when you gaze at me like that," she said, breathing rapidly.

The rest of the courtroom just shook its collective head at her once again. Really, Sonny only had two expressions, the one that froze his enemies dead in their tracks and the other, which caused a parade of women to throw off their clothes and jump into his silk sheeted bed. Only Alexis would get the two mixed up.

Sonny tried again, channeling more energy into his look and this time, Alexis batted her eyes and started preening her hair in response, mumbling nonsensical words. She wished she hadn't left the scarlet red bodice she stole from Sam in the closet but this morning had started out entirely different from how it turned out. She hadn't even known she was on trial for murder, let alone that she had a chance to get lucky with PC's recently unseated king of the bad boys in the back seat of his car. Just like old times, well the times they would have had if he hadn't unceremoniously dumped her when that shrew Carly came back to attend her own funeral.

"What do you say," she said, "Why don't we cut to the chase and go jump into your Rolls Royce? They can always try, convict and fry me in absentia."

Sonny just grew more frustrated so his face appeared more brooding. But to Alexis, that just made her rigid self-control melt into puddles.

"I mean I don't even have a lawyer right now and I need something else to think about besides a pesky little criminal trial."

The Judge pounded her gavel and Sonny kept practicing turning his bedroom eyes into death rays. If he could concentrate just hard enough, something might sink through.

"Order in the Court," she said, "Ms Davis, you are on thin ice in my courtroom and I will throw you in jail for tampering with a witness."

Alexis' mouth flew open.

"For what," she said, "I want this man to show me a good time and you're saying I'm committing a crime?"

"I've had it with you Ms Davis," the judge said, "I say verdict first, trial later. I read that in a book once."

A voice roared from the jury box.

"Here, Here…"

Alexis didn't need to look there to see where those words had come from. She already knew that Edward Quartermaine, aka the Notorious Mr. Q according to his record label was never going to forgive her for that one teeny weenie transgression. All because she freaked out on one of her wedding days and ran out on Nedsy at the altar. Now he was going to finally get his long-awaited revenge exacted by her blood. Oh if she could just channel her evil stepmother Helena for one moment…no Alexis you don't really mean that…oh yes I do…no…Natasha that's all you need, just channel here…Dobson here to serve you…and Kristina checking in here too with her favorite knife.

Alexis felt it had suddenly gotten very crowded inside her head. If she weren't careful, she would be declared insane and be shipped off to Sunnybrook Farm to room with what once had been a sweet woman named Laura.

"I…need a lawyer…."

She fell then on her knees to pray to whoever might be listening. Sonny just sighed in relief because he had been so worried that he had lost his lethal look and the rest of the courtroom had just shrugged and then continued with all their conversations, the sounds buzzing around Alexis but not breaking her concentration.

_Just breathe…._

Then a misty fog surrounded the center of the courtroom, and a faint hum began to reverberate and that attracted some people's attention.

"What is it," lulu popped up her head, "Am I missing anything?"

Sam and Jason broke up their make out session in the back row, and when Sam looked up and saw the mist, she clung onto Jason tightly.

"What is it, what's happening?"

Jason just shrugged.

Brenda gazed up idly from doing her nails, wondering what the fuss was about and why people stopped looking at her.

Robin beamed in excitement, barely able to contain herself while rubbing her decoder ring.

"It's Casey," she exclaimed, "I knew he'd come back!"

But it was none of these things though a new force had come to PC. Alexis looked up and saw an image emerge from the fog who…looked a lot like her. Her heart sunk in disappointment. This had to be some metaphoric dream and she had no time to figure out its meaning except that maybe like nearly everyone else in town, she had a clone or at least an evil twin.

"Who are you," she gasped.

The woman smiled but her eyes like a hawk bore no mercy.

"I'm Julia Capwell," she said, "I'm your attorney. I see I arrived in time to save your miserable life."

* * *

The two of them got cozy in the waiting room of General Hospital where occasionally things happened when it got slow at the Waterfront.

"Oh Patrick," the woman hissed, "I've wanted this for so long. I can hardly believe we're together again."

Patrick yawned and looked at his watch.

"I've got surgery on one of Liz's kids in an hour," he said, "I have no idea which one."

Lisa rolled her eyes.

"The woman just can't stop having babies can she," she snarled, "and by different fathers, how crass can you get?"

Patrick thought about that, thinking that in PC all kinds of things happened and relatively speaking, Liz's transgressions wouldn't even make the top ten lists. She was a bright enough girl, smart enough to have completed GH's rigorous nurses training program in record time. Not that she even had to attend class getting plenty of practice making house calls in the dead of night to sew up bullet wounds and perform emergency tracheotomies.

He felt for her, given that Lucky had taken off again following some mysterious siren which attracted him to yet another unattainable woman and Niklos, well he had started wearing black again, grown his facial hair back and had taken to brooding through the endless moors of Spoon Island. Maybe after the surgery, he would leave work and just drop by her loft and check up on her.

Lisa of course knew his mind had wandered and wanted the attention back on her.

"Patrick, darling…I can think of ways to occupy you before the operation…"

Oh he had no doubt about that but then a vision of Robin in all her sweetness and light popped into his head and pangs of guilt tore at him. Well at least for a little while but the essence of Lisa's beauty drew him under her spell once again. She kissed him on his mouth suddenly, and he felt his hunger for her grow.

After 10 minute according to his watch, they broke for air. He looked at her dumbfounded.

"Where on earth did you learn to kiss like that?"

She smiled seductively and her eyes glittered.

"From an online course on how to win Mr. Right Now of course," she said, "A woman named Faith teaches it and her methods are shall we say, rather unorthodox…"

A chord of doom filled the air breaking up the silence inside the waiting room but if Patrick heard it, he didn't respond except to kiss Lisa one more time, to taste more of her magic.

Outside a woman watched, quietly calculating her next move…

* * *

The dark prince lay dressed in his best black suit inside the silk lined coffin. His eyes closed his expression peaceful. Two women peered inside the coffin at his still form.

"Is he dead," Brook Lyn asked.

Elizabeth frowned.

"I don't think so," she said, "I think he's just brooding. He's had a lot of these dark moods lately."

Brook Lyn blew a tendril out of her heart shaped face and popped another wad of gum in her mouth.

"He's sexy as all get out," she said, "but this coffin thing, it's a bit kinky don't you think?"

Elizabeth just folded her thin arms.

"I think it's more philosophical than sensual," she said, "though I've never heard a woman leave Spoon Island with complaints."

Brook Lyn sighed.

"Do you think it will help if I sing something?"

Elizabeth made a face, and then shook her head.

"Oh please don't…"

Brook Lyn shrugged and then started pacing in a way that drove Elizabeth crazy. It's not like she could stay here waiting for Nikolas to get with the program all day. She had three bullets to remove, a knifing to stitch up and one lobotomy scheduled. She wondered if her mentor Audrey had to deal with this kind of itinerary but then stopped herself, remembering how PC's matriarch's most recent brain surgery had been done using a power drill.

And the dear woman hadn't been quite the same since.

Not even when her son Tommy returned back home to once again exorcise his demons incurred from some mission of mercy in a faraway place. Lisa had been so tempted to take him aside during his last stay in town to tell him, hey it's nice to be compassionate and all that but it's time to put your considerable medical talent genetically passed along through the Hardy family tree to use and start making some serious cash.

After all, once again Liz had been searching for a suitable father for her children once her fling with Jerry…Craig or whatever his name had been the last time he had been in town.

Suddenly Brook Lyn's eyes went wide like saucers.

"I think he's coming around…"

The still form's chest began moving up and down and when his eyes opened….both women screamed.


	20. Chapter 20

Another update up, thanks for reading and the feedback!

* * *

Alexis just stared at the woman in front of her. The one who looked just like her except for the more subdued choice in her wardrobe, including a scarf she would never be caught dead wearing in public. Scarves like that were better made for Diane's idea of a good time…oh never mind, her attorney had just gone off and deserted her by getting arrested on some stupid contempt of court charge.

"Who the hell are you…again?"

The other woman just smiled and put her briefcase on the table.

"I'm Julia Capwell, I'm your attorney and I'm here to help you at your murder trial," she said, calmly.

Alexis stared at her warily.

"Where did you beam in from …Mars?"

"No Santa Barbara," Julia said, "I'm from Capwell and Capwell and my husband, Mason's watching the kids while I save your life."

"You look just like…"

Julia nodded.

"We were twin sisters…separated at birth by fate," she said, "Our mother was murdered."

Alexis sighed, exasperated.

"I know that…I was there…where were you?"

"Being raised by some hippies in a commune thousands of miles away," Julia said, "But I can't really remember that part."

"Who cares about your life…I'm on trial for my life here and I don't even know who's dead…"

Julia just took one look at her client and walked over to the prosecutor.

"Is that you…Ric Lancing?"

He looked up at her, his eyes grazed over her.

"Alexis but I thought…you're over there…"

"No it's me, Julia," she said, "We were in law school together. We met at that party…"

"I don't quite remember…"

She shrugged.

"I didn't find our interlude particularly memorable either," she said, "So you wound up on the other side of the law?"

Ric chuckled.

"You must have me confused with Sonny…he's the career criminal but you know what they say about the prodigal son…he gets all the attention…all the love…all the…"

She turned away from him with a wave of her hand and headed back to Alexis who had clearly gone into panic mode and had started hyperventilating in response while flailing her arms.

"Just breathe…breathe…Atta girl…."

Julia watched her puzzled while she issued these orders, wondering how this creature in front of her with the flighty temperament and lousy taste in clothing could ever have the same branch of a very convoluted family tree. But genetics often proved to be unpredictable in its application.

"Alexis…you are going to have to pull yourself together…"

But her twin kept her cheeks pursed as she tried to inhale oxygen. Julia opened up her briefcase and pulled out a paper bag handing it to Alexis who just grabbed it blindly.

"Use it or lose it…meaning this case and your life," Julia counseled, "PC is a town through of inbred misfits one step out of Meadowbrook Asylum who love a public hanging whenever they can find one and it's going to take every iota of my considerable brain power and commitment to justice to extricate you from the hangman's noose."

Alexis recovered enough to bat her eyelashes.

"They don't hang people in PC," she said, "We're much too civilized…we use the guillotine instead."

Julia shrugged and started issuing orders in her commanding tone of voice, trying to keep her neurosis of a sister grounded.

Alexis just ignored her, her attention now focused on her louse of an ex-husband Ric whose only worthwhile contribution to the world had been through Molly. Her sweet, angelic daughter who hadn't been seen in a while but then that didn't really matter, she would turn up soon as she always did eventually.

Ric saw her, started to approach strutting his stuff and threw out one of his winning smiles. Alexis rolled her eyes at him and then looked around the courtroom, her eyes searching.

"What happened to Sonny…wasn't he supposed to be on the witness stand?"

The light went out in Ric's eyes because forever he lived in the shadow of his older brother and he walked back to his desk unnoticed by everyone.

Alexis pointed her finger at no one in particular, her nostrils flaring.

"I want him removed from my case," she said, "I might just kill the leach before the trial even begins."

Julia tilted her head, looking at Ric with a new eye.

"Why on earth would you think it's a good idea to kill your prosecutor as a defense strategy in a murder trial?"

"Because…because I came home and saw him rolling on my favorite living room rug with my eldest daughter, Samantha…"

Julia shot her a look.

"Your oldest daughter is named Samantha," she said, "So is mine, but she's an honor student and president of the student council and debate team in high school not a gold digging little harlot with clothes off the rack of some rummage sale."

Alexis balled her hand into a fist against her sister who stood there looking at her so smug and superior. Oh wait a minute; she was superior to her, because she had been able to break free of the Cassadine curse much more readily than Alexis and actually grew up with somewhat normal parents.

But that didn't stop her from wanting a smack down with the sister who had reemerged from the past to save her life.

"Chill Alexis," Julia commanded, "I don't want to have to get rough here but I have no choice. I am here because I promised our dead mother and our egomaniacal father that I would take care of you until the Day of Reckoning."

The what, Alexis blinked. But Julia betrayed no further words of why she had walked out of that mist only minutes earlier.

Instead Julia pulled something else out of the briefcase. Alexis' eyes widened at the display as Julia broke into a series of intricate maneuvers waving it in the air, enjoying the snapping sound as the air hissed around it.

As it turned out, Diane hadn't been the only lady lawyer skillful with the whip.

* * *

Brook Lyn ambled down the aisle, her nose pierced and her hair feeling a little bit patriotic in color until she reached the jury box where she sat next to Edward.

"Hey Q ball have I missed anything?"

He just threw her a piercing glance.

"Who are you again?"

Brook Lyn sprawled into her seat and folded her tattooed arms.

"I'm your great-granddaughter by Ned, named Brook Lyn…"

Edward sighed.

"Oh that grandson of mine," he scoffed, "I cut his entire branch of the family tree years ago when he hooked up with two flaky hussies in a row, that was it…I had to put my foot down…"

"Oh…bummer…I guess that means I won't be getting that music studio that I really need to cut my first album…"

Edward just rolled his eyes. Ungrateful and even murderous children had spawned more children who were a waste of real estate wherever they dropped and then they grew up to…well the Quartermine line had become diluted from all this consorting with various riff raff that in one generation, they would be one step removed from commoners. Hopefully he would be dead or buried by then, either from natural causes or at the hand of one of his greedy and ruthless children. Where the hell had this poisonous progeny come from? Probably from Lila's family tree, which bore fruit obviously both sweet and deadly.

Then another pale looking waif of a girl sat down next to Edward on his other side, bathed in ethereal light. He looked at her, one hairy brow raised.

"Who in God's green earth are you?"

She smiled at him.

"I'm not of this earth…Oh I was once…but I was strangled most horribly by the man I had this thing for but he didn't mean it…Like every other guy he was more interested in my prettier sister…"

Edward still felt in the dark not that he was all that interested in the imaginary problems of the younger set. Oh if any of them had really known what real tragedy was like, had ever made any sacrifices or knew what it was like to really work up a sweat…not that he knew because he had married for money… god rest Lila's soul, but it sounded good.

She licked her ghostly lips and tried again.

"I…was the smartest kid in my class and I…dated your grandson and then he dumped me for that troll up Lulu."

Edward shook his head.

"Why are you bothering me with this," he said, "except to remind me that youth is wasted on the young."

Brook Lyn took a pack of gum out of her shirt pocket and stuck several pieces in her mouth, chewing furiously. Edward shot her a look but she ignored him, but she caught the ethereal woman sitting in the jury box.

"Where did you come from?"

The glowing girl smiled.

"Hello Brook Lyn…"

Brook Lyn looked at her warily and then she stopped mid-chew.

"Oh no…it can't be…"

Edward just shook his head impatiently at the both of them.

"What's the fuss about now," he said, "Maybe you'd better take it outside."

"Yes, it's me Brook Lyn and I haven't forgiven you…I'm just in a better place now."

Brook Lyn shrugged.

"There's no booze, rock music or sex up there. Hardly sounds better to me."

The woman sighed.

"You do remember don't you…how you tried to steal him from me."

Then something clicked inside Edward's brain, which had slowed down a notch from senility.

"Georgie…you're the nice girl who went out with what's his name, the one with the crazy hairstyle of hair…Dylan…yeah…nice kid until…"

Edward gave a doleful look at Brook Lyn who looked unapologetic back. Georgie all sweetness and light continued prattling on.

"Yes it's me and I have come back from the afterlife to fulfill my mission…"

Brook Lyn's eyes widened a bit at that.

"You're going to save the world or even better, destroy it so we can start all over?"

Georgie shook her head, her curls bouncing much like they did in life.

"No I got called for jury duty," she said, "Those silly court clerks found my new address."

* * *

Lulu sat there with Johnny Wonderful who had joined her in the courtroom, slipping his hand in her own like they were sitting at the movies and not at the trial of the week. Still it was all the same in PC. One person's persecution was everyone else's entertainment. Suddenly Lulu's eyes brows furrowed and her lips curled into a frown.

"Can you believe it," she said, "Do you see who's in the jury box next to Eddy Q?"

Johnny tried to concentrate which for him was quite difficult. So he faked it like he did most things.

"You mean that chick, Brook Lyn, oh she's a hot number."

Lulu arched one of her brows dangerously, a gift she inherited from her father.

"Excuse me?"

So he back peddled and then pecked her lips to show he meant it.

"But anyway, I'm not talking about that classless little bimbo, I mean the girl sitting on his other side."

Johnny peered his eyes to look but all he saw was an empty seat next to Edward. He turned to look at his girlfriend in confusion.

"Lulu honey, there's no one sitting there."

She frowned at him, rolled her eyes in disbelief and then stared again, where Georgie looked up at her and blew her a kiss that penetrated Lulu's body like an electrical shock laced with both fire and ice.

After recovering, Lulu looked at the ghostly woman from her past and then she widened her eyes, because she just knew. The day of reckoning was upon them.


	21. Chapter 21

Another installment up, thanks for reading and the feedback!

* * *

Alexis sat downing shots inside Coleman's bar after her latest disastrous day in court. It hadn't started out all that badly until Diane had been hauled away in handcuffs and she had learned that some long-lost clone or whatever had shown up in a cloud of mist to represent her in her murder case instead.

Julia had been her name and she had just stood there dressed there without a hair out of place and had looked at her with such…contempt. And this had just struck to the core of Alexis' being like a shard of dirtied glass…or something more passé in PC, a wooden stake. Alexis loathed feeling this way, because after all before today she hadn't even known she had a sister…oh wait she did have one named Christina didn't she? A younger more beautiful version of herself with long fiery red hair who had threatened to upstage her until at the point she had felt like kicking her to the curb for stealing her spotlight someone else had blown her up instead, straight to kingdom come. The better of two worlds she had decided, she was out a sister and she could blame Sonny for her death adding it to the growing laundry list of his shortcomings.

But Christina aside, she still hadn't known about this other sister, the one who looked so much like her, how crazy could that be? Then the more rational side of her spoke up from her divided psyche, no more ridiculous than having a grown daughter she hadn't known about, meaning that the time spent with the father couldn't have been all that memorable. She had secretly always wanted a daughter to play with, to dress up in the nicest clothing money could buy and to move her around to live the life that Alexis had been denied while growing up a prisoner courtesy of the Cassadine machine. But really, did she have to be such a…dare she say it a troll up? And such an ungrateful one at that?

Seriously she had taken her wayward daughter under her wing even after her daughter had refused to sacrifice Sonny's latest spawn to save Christina's life and had fed and dressed her up much prettier than the slovenly adorned minx she had been in those earlier days. She had let her into her home and what had the tramp done?

She had rolled on the carpet, Alexis' favorite, with that no good louse of a husband, Ric in front of her mother who had just returned home after receiving an appalling medical diagnosis.

Alexis' eyes closed as she remembered those dark days even before that murderous con artist Jerry what's his name sweet talked his way into her life and into her bed for some truly scorching times she had to admit. Sinfully delightful, an assault to the good girl persona that Alexis had worn like an albatross even before she found out about his dual identities, that Jekyll in this case most definitely had a Hyde and she couldn't figure out which one she'd had an affair with.

So what if he had more than one identity, he and everyone else in PC…except for her alienated teenage daughter Christina who had seemingly grown up overnight and her dear sweet angel of a daughter Molly who she still hadn't located but she assured herself she would show up at some point. But he also had a thing for Sam like all her men did and that was truly unforgivable in ways that murder and assorted mayhem were not.

Okay…forget her children for a moment, what about her? What about her prospects for a healthy relationship in an unholy town? Well Mac and she had been engaging in flirty but inane banter for what, two years now and had gone no further, not even sending each other naughty texts? Okay so what about Jax…what if…he had a thing for cougars after all and not the four legged kind…but wait, she wouldn't last long in a territorial fight with a woman like Carly…okay so that left Coleman.

She eyed the shaggy man pouring drinks at the bar and decided okay, a couple of Scotches and a gin and maybe…he'll start looking like half man half beast…one of those shape shifting werewolves perhaps a refugee from the other side of PC that had slipped away one night into some vortex taking along with it, a slew of vampires, moneys and a few evil twins. And throw a couple brandies in the mix and he could look seriously hot in a virile and dangerous kind of way, Alexis thought licking her lips.

Her phone rang while she pondered Coleman a little bit more, sipping her next drink.

"Alexis is that you?"

"Yeah…Diane…I'm out and about no thanks to you."

Some silence met that comment.

"Look Alexis I'm sorry but a woman's got to stand on principle especially in this town."

Alexis sighed.

"You got arrested because you were caught doing something very inappropriate in the judge's chambers."

Diane sounded dismissive.

"Oh that…it was nothing," she said, "Besides I'm out on bail and back at my place with Max."

Boy, Diane moved quickly.

"You don't have him tied up again do you?"

Diane snorted.

"Been there done that," she said, "Actually he's rubbing my feet right now. It's been a long day."

Alexis thought that Diane didn't know the half of it. Nothing could be nearly as bad as what she had been experiencing and did she really need to hear about her ex-attorney's petty problems?

"Are you there with Mac…where are you anyway?"

"I'm at Coleman's bar…alone…you know Mac…it's been so long since we've engaged in flirty banter that goes nowhere I can't remember whether next time it's my turn or not."

Diane clucked her tongue.

"Alexis…dear you need to get out and live more…what about Coleman not exactly my first pick but he'll do in a pinch for most women."

Alexis voice grew frosty.

"I'm not 'most women'."

Diane knew that, she knew her friend to be an anal retentive argumentative pain in the rear but she never said it out loud.

"How's your replacement attorney?"

"Replacement…what do you mean…you're out now right?"

Diane sighed and Alexis thought she detected a hint of relief in her voice but no that couldn't be…any attorney should be thankful for the chance to help her out of a jam even being charged with a murder where a victim hadn't been named yet.

"I can't…the judge removed me from the case."

"The judge can't do that!"

"The judge did…but don't worry, Julia's an amazing attorney and comes highly recommended."

Alexis paused.

"She's also my long-lost sister or so she claims," she said.

"Oh…didn't know that…but it shouldn't matter."

Maybe not, Alexis thought but she might need someone who didn't have a drop of Cassadine blood to avoid the guillotine.

"Well Alexis would love to chat but got to go," Diane said, "Max is waiting…"

And just like that Diane hung up on her. Now Alexis had to face the night with a bunch of empty shot glasses and a man who looked less and less crudely designed as time elapsed. She looked over at him searchingly but he didn't seem to notice.

So Alexis kept downing those shot glasses. After that what else to do besides get behind the wheel of her car and run over some poor person out on the road?

Life just had gotten so ordinary

* * *

Christina looked over at what took place at Sonny's house. She had been walking down the tree lined street avoiding the waterfront like her mom told her to and Michael had actually walked two entire blocks without stopping to beat up on a tree. Actually he seemed in an uplifted mood and he also looked…different. Whatever this metamorphism thing was that gripped them both, it seemed to work even faster on him. Was that because he was of the male gender or because he was two degrees separated from Sonny, the focal point of all of PC?

Anyway, they had approached Sonny's castle which looked more like a fortress these days what with threats of mob hits and from damage caused by an object that turned out to be a falling satellite and not a hired hit. Sometimes Christina wondered if her father hadn't been making all these threats to his business and his home up. Because if anyone seriously had been after him, he'd be gone right, but instead he still hung around town like an angry ghost.

The paparazzi hung around the front gate of his estate like buzzing bees in a hive because they had just gotten wind that today would be the day that Sonny would reunite with his long-lost love Brenda what's her name for a kiss. Yeah people kissed everyday even in boring old PC but apparently when the mumbling mobster and the preening princess did it that made it news that would push aside any other events like Luke and Laura's zillionth renewal of their wedding vows once for every time he felt guilty about cheating on her and the latest Cassadine plot against the denizens of PC.

But as of yet, no sighting of the suddenly reemerging Brenda who had left PC under such scandalous circumstances but had shown up again, her latest reasons for doing so undisclosed and once again, she became the town's queen bee. Nasty scribbling had appeared in the bathroom at Kelly's Diner turned morbid coffee house that her days in PC would be short in duration and that she had spent thousands of dollars on plastic surgery leaving none of her size 0 body in its natural state. Oh the gossiping harpies that flocked at various locales in the center of PC could be cruel indeed but Christina who had last seen Brenda several years ago when she had been in diapers wondered if any of it could be true.

The two of them crept up closer and Michael began grumbling again, his fists clenching, the veins popping up on his face. Fortunately there were no trees around.

"No sign of the spoiled brat today," one newsman sighed, "I heard she's getting her talons sharpened."

The other media people laughed and Christina just rolled her eyes wondering why they couldn't come up with new material. She looked over when she saw a corvette pull up and that a woman with honey colored hair and a curvy figure stepped out looking royally pissed.

"Looks like mom's shown up," Michael said with a sigh.

The paparazzi moved closer, sensing a confrontation looming because it was unwritten law in PC that these two vixens couldn't occupy the same space without the entire town, maybe the state imploding as if matter had collided with its opposite.

"She's not going to show…"

And at that moment, a Mercedes showed up and out popped the pouting princess that had captured Sonny's heart being the first of the truest loves of his life. She wore the most stylized and form fitting dress that molded to her figure, her arms a bit gaunt and a lipstick dressed smile stretching across her face as she coolly surveyed her subjects surrounding her. Several adoring young men caught up in the essence of what was Brenda followed her somewhat dazed and confused. Christina lightly tugged on Michael's arm so he wouldn't join them.

"You just got away with offing that harpy Claudia," she said, "don't push your luck."

Would he listen, she wondered and then she forgot about that as the door to the estate opened and PC's capo of coffee and other things whispered about behind closed doors stepped out into his doorstep.

"Max…where are you," he said, sounding annoyed then remembering Diane probably had him locked up in her basement dungeon for a spell.

Brenda's eyes glistened, her hair shined as effervescence pooled around her as the paparazzi stepped forward just enough to allow her to look at him. She didn't move towards him because men approached her not the other way around but Sonny didn't approach women either but let them approach him which left them at an impasse, a standoff built on mutually suppressed longings.

And then the crowd of PC's denizens parted and out stepped Carly who when it came to another woman encroaching on her turf with Sonny forgot she already had a husband of her own.

Now the three of them stood looking at each other as the crowd hushed to see what would happen next.


	22. Chapter 22

Another update is posted, hope you like it, and thanks for reading and the feedback!

* * *

Alexis woke up the next morning with a terrible hangover but at least she had somehow wound up in her own bed. For a brief moment…she thought…but after breaking out into a cold sweat, she saw that she hadn't been lying next to a slumbering Coleman, alias the Wolf man as the society pages called him.

"Just breathe Alexis…breathe…"

Two second inhalations, followed by twice as much time spent exhaling gently. Then it hit her…oh god she had been out driving inebriated…she better check the morning newspaper or watch the daily news show to make sure no dead bodies had been found on the road or some beloved ingenuine who had turned up at General Hospital after being struck by a car while wandering around at night for some reason.

Hyperventilation threatened to consumer her so she quickly reached for the remote and flipped it on while she reached for her silken bathrobe and slipped it over her body. A blond and busty news anchor greeted her with a perky smile and perfect teeth.

"Yes…Carl…it was the biggest chick fight in PC's recent history…which of course only goes back a couple weeks…but I would always put my money on any big haired blond street hustler with a chip on her shoulder over a shrimp of a brunette with fake fingernails."

Carl's brows rose at least an inch like furry caterpillars.

"But Sasha, Brenda's got serious attitude and moxie coming out of the exile to take on the diva of PC in Carly, so that they can battle it out for the same sorry trio of men."

Sasha nodded.

"Yeah I get your point…Now I almost get that Aussie surfer and tycoon, Jax is almost a catch with a body guaranteed to make any woman sin but seriously, Sonny? The guy's a short, mumbling thug with cheap threads and a receding hairline."

Carl rolled his eyes.

"He's got the most potent swimmers in PC by far…look at his progeny and their mothers…you've got the unstable Carly, the serial killing Alexis and you've heard the whispers about that luscious cougar, Olivia who's shagging with Johnny Wonderful."

Sasha smiled to show off her pearly whites.

"Agreed…now and who could forget the hit man with the double guns and who reduces women to simpering heaps at his feet without moving a facial muscle…"

Heather, the weather girl gushed.

"Oh yeah and what's with his hair, during last week's tornado that wiped out the dark shadows contingent of PC, he came out of that disaster without looking like his hair had been through a meat grinder."

Sasha shook her head.

"No…no…you got it all wrong," she said, "The one that makes me sigh is the mysterious Jerry, who's Jax's edgier brother."

Heather scoffed.

"You mean edgy don't you," she said, "The only edge with Jax is his hair style."

Alexis just shook her head as the talking heads prattled on in their vapidity. Seriously, none of them had any clue what they were talking about, only she did having married one of the men and not sleeping with him, sleeping with one of them without marrying him and as for Jerry…oh her body went immediately hot as she remembered their torrid interlude. Yes he had been bad, very, very bad but his hands…his lips…his…oh she really had to sit down now and cool off. She had heard on the gossip mill that he had washed up on the shore of PC again and it would take every fiber of her being to stop from running off to rip off his clothing and engage in carnal bliss on some piece of available furniture.

But seriously what had Carly and Brenda done that garnered so much breathless attention, after all cat fights between them weren't exactly news. They met, they circled each other, one threw the first barb and then meeeeeeowww and the claws came out, all manicured courtesy of some of the best in that business.

Nothing they did could possibly be as interesting or newsworthy as what had happened to her. She was on trial for her life, to be spared the guillotine for murdering someone…only the courts hadn't gotten around to telling her exactly who it was she had killed this time. The news should be focused on her, the bubbleheads on that television show should be interviewing her…she sighed as she padded off to the kitchen to dig up some coffee…hopefully one of her daughters had made it for her.

On the way, she nearly tripped and stumbled over something.

"What the fu…."

Oops, she really shouldn't be swearing…it wouldn't look good to the jury and with some of the folks chosen to serve on it including Eddie Q, no…she had to be the pristine, the perfect, the virginal…no scratch that, the matronly woman who set the standard for appropriate behavior in PC.

She picked up what appeared to be one of Molly's dolls, only something didn't look quite right with the gift she had given Molly for her third birthday which had been…last month…right…she couldn't quite remember when. Oh no….what was missing were the dolls eyes, instead were gaping holes which appeared to have been made with…well what looked like some sort of blade, according to her own expertise in culinary implements.

"Oh Molly….what has happened to you?"

And truly she didn't know because she couldn't even remember the last time she had even seen her daughter but she had just been so busy dealing with her own mess of a life. She picked up the mutilated doll and set it aside; deciding to deal with it later on when she finished the list of chores she had to do today. That hair styling appointment she kept putting off could no longer wait because she knew that how defendants wore their hair, long or short, curly or buzzed often determined whether they were sent to the guillotine or not.

Then she had to go to that moody coffee spot where the sophisticated hung out to be seen and get her hands on some real java before engaging in some flirtatious banter with straight arrow Mac, which would have to get them both through the remainder of the year. But wait…he had been keeping his distance from her since she had been charged with murder so maybe she shouldn't see him until after the trial. She really liked Mac, he was handsome, mature, very sane and law abiding which was a real change for her choice in men. But as she tried to picture him, that devil, Jerry kept pushing Mac out of the way because no one could possess her like Jerry, no one…She slapped her face and decided that wasn't enough so she went to the sink to splash her face with cool water to bring her temperature down.

After doing that, she looked around and noticed the quiet inside of her house. And she wondered for the first time, where are my kids?

* * *

Kristina licked her lips and pouted just like her godmother, Faith had taught her to do and she had seriously been practicing in the mirror of the girls' bathroom at PC High. She had smoked a couple cigarettes to calm her nerves and drank a shot of brandy slipped to her by Molly from their mom's liquor cabinet.

She had left school when she had noticed Jason walking by, in his James Dean attire and looking ultra tough. Others usually gave this known bruiser who had once been Sonny's other half until a stormy feud led to them breaking up. These days Jason took on odd jobs performing hits and modeling on the side. Kristina had scored a magazine that showed a photo spread of her dream guy and her eyes had widened. Oh she had to figure out some way to get him to notice her. She just had better looks, better threads (thanks to Faith) and class than her skank of a sister, Sam.

She tailed Jason being oh so sneaky…about a half block behind him and he just methodically shifted his head with that perfect coif back and forth scoping out the scenery which by the waterfront wasn't much to look at…oh if her mommy dearest knew she was even near the waterfront…but what she didn't know…anyway she was going to catch up to him at some point and hit him up for a date. She had dressed just for him in a spicy minidress and had teased her hair just right, after waking up this morning and noticing it had grown another two inches longer. That wasn't the only thing that had grown overnight, as she noticed the tighter fit of her dress on top.

Just a minute, he had stopped there to brood for a moment, to show the world his best side and then she started moving forward. Another second or two…

"Kristina, what's up girlfriend?"

She looked up and she groaned inwardly as she saw Lulu with her poodle skirt outfit on sashaying to her.

"It's been how long…you look….taller…"

Kristina felt taller too. She towered over Lulu for the first time without…heels…well three inch stilettos anyway.

She watched as Jason's figure grew smaller as he moved down towards the docks where no doubt something cool was about to happen while she was here stuck listening to this drip. No doubt, Lulu would start rhapsodizing about Johnny Wonderful again in a minute…

"Did I tell you what he bought me," Lulu started breathlessly.

"A dungeon," Kristina tossed out.

Lulu's eyes widened.

"Krissie….what has happened to you," she said, "you shouldn't be speaking of such things."

Oh, Kristina's hand itched to slap Lulu for invoking that hated nickname from her childhood.

"I'm growing up…and PC's going to have to be ready for it."

"Yeah well that's great…but no Johnny didn't buy me a dungeon…he brought me a ticket to the Caribbean islands."

Kristina rolled her eyes, didn't this chick know anything?

"You don't need any tickets for that," she said, "the staircase behind the medical clinic…"

Lulu sighed.

"It's going to be romantic…beyond my dreams…"

Kristina frowned.

"Not if there's only one ticket," she said, "Why would he not be going with you?"

Lulu's smile evaporated that quickly after her brain caught up.

"Yeah that's right…no it's got be an oversight…a printing mistake."

Not likely, Kristina thought, Johnny might be wonderful and all that but he too had been ensnared in Brenda's spell.

So Kristina just shook her head at Lulu.

"I think he's sending you off to some paradise so you won't be here when he hooks up with another woman…"

Lulu's face went ashen, and looked awfully brittle.

"No…it can't be…Noooooooooooo."

Oh yes, Kristina thought as she walked away leaving Lulu to slide to the ground and pound her fists into it as the tears flowed…and she waited for the vision of her catanoic mother to come and sweep her away again.

Life had just taken a cruel turn in PC.


	23. Chapter 23

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* * *

Kristina walked away from the emotionally crushed Lulu, who had sunk onto the dingy street of the waterfront not even taking care to avoid messing her poodle skirt. But she just shrugged unable to find any sympathy for Lulu given that she should have known what she was getting into trying to land herself a hunk like Johnny Wonderful with a wandering eye. The guy had even cast a glance at gothic Brook Lyn who looked pretty damn scary these days wearing black and as rumor had it, hanging out with the brooding Nikolas who allegedly slept in a coffin.

Wait a minute, wasn't she related to Nikolas? Oh yeah, she was his cousin or something inconsequential like that. Really she didn't see any resemblance, maybe he was really adopted or something like that. Sometimes when spending time with her mother, she wished that she had been.

Not that daddy Sonny was any ray of sunshine either, given that she had walked in on him just last week and he had been either brooding in his study or standing in front of his mirror glaring at his reflection and saying, "you are dead to me…you are so dead to me…you are really dead to me and this time I mean it…"

She just rolled her eyes when he got in these moods and knew it wasn't the right time to hit him up for a hike in her allowance. He didn't pay much attention to her even during his brighter periods; in fact she had been ditching school more often than not the past couple of months. Her new best friend forever Faith what's her name had been encouraging this decision, even though Kristina hadn't been sure she had even made it. Ennui just scared her more than even the darkness that had threaten to smother PC this time around…something to do with some character named the Balkan. Whispers about this mysterious figure without a face lingered in the hallways and the bathrooms of PC High but she refused to engage in such silliness. Just another loser wandering into the loser town whipping up everyone in a frenzy even though he couldn't adopt a cooler sounding name. Balkan…sounded like a dork.

Suddenly she looked up and saw Mac talking to a police officer and noticed that she had somehow missed that this section of the waterfront had been filled with police cars and a coroner's wagon.

Mac looked up at her and frowned.

"Kristina, aren't you supposed to be in school?"

She shrugged.

"Parent-teacher conferences are today," she said, "They sent us home early."

"Alexis didn't mention that," he said, "but then she's been pretty busy lately."

Kristina sighed, not wanting to hear anymore about her mother's pathetic life which seemed sandwiched between murder trials.

"What's going on here?"

Mac looked back at his busy cops.

"There was a young girl murdered," he said, "Trixie, who went to PC High actually, maybe you knew her?"

No Kristina didn't, not all that well. Trixie had been on the cheerleading squad but mostly she just had dropped in on PC for no other purpose but to be another meaningless murder victim, an extra in the drama where other people like Kristina were its stars.

"No…I saw her in class now and then but I really didn't know her."

"Then you don't know anyone who would want her dead then," Mac said, "This is all very mysterious, as to why anyone would want to kill her especially in this fashion."

His words aroused her curiosity.

"What fashion?"

Mac took a deep breath closing his eyes to collect himself. Even as a hardened cop policing one of the most violent cities in New York state, he had been shocked at the sight.

"It wasn't enough that they stabbed her to death with what looks like a letter opener but the eyes…the eyes…"

Kristina sighed impatiently.

"What about them?"

Mac tried to hold it together and barely succeeded.

"They're missing…the killer removed them with a blade…"

Pretty gross, Kristina agreed, but hardly diabolical…though there was something familiar about it.

"He must have been very strong to overpower this athletic cheerleader," Mac continued, "Very tall, broad shouldered and with a killer's lack of remorse."

Okay that fit about half the male population of PC, Kristina guessed but she didn't want to spend too much time thinking about such unpleasant things. At some point there was going to be a prom at her high school, it hadn't been announced but there just had to be a prom. She needed a dress, a date and a hotel suite for the romantic interlude afterward called the prom night. Her summer on the run deal hadn't quite worked out and she just couldn't fail at doing prom right.

Mac must have read her mind.

"They're going to have to cancel prom again."

Kristina shook her head.

"No Mac…they do that every year…"

"That's because something tragic happens," Mac said, "Someone dies. Someone goes insane or there's some natural disaster…sometimes all at once."

Kristina scowled.

"You can't cancel prom…you just can't…it's not fair…"

Mac sighed.

"It might seem harsh to a young, innocent, mind not jaded by the harsh realities of life like yours but it might be for the best….a killer is lurking around the town taking innocent lives."

Kristina rolled her eyes, so what else was new? The blood of victims, some more innocent than others, dripped down the branches of both sides of her family tree, but canceling the one cool event during senior year just seemed barbaric.

Mac watched the turmoil on the young teen's face sadly before returning back to PC's latest dead body.

* * *

Alexis paced the hallway outside Jax's office, the man who had been her favorite husband. Madness considering they had never even consummated her marriage. She wished she had done the same when she had married that cad, Ric.

"What is it Alexis," Jax asked.

She sighed and looked at her hands, really thinking that she needed that manicure that she had put off right now but she needed his help. Someone had to keep reminding her that running off and finding Jerry would be the biggest mistake that she had ever made. The siren call of seduction had been by her ear all day and it hadn't helped that her best frenemy forever Diane had called her up giving her a blow by blow account of her latest interlude with Max, Sonny's incompetent bodyguard.

"He's tied up right now," Diane said, "So you'd better make this fast…before the whipped cream goes flat."

And Alexis had needed some files for her case to hand off to her new attorney, Julia who had walked out of the cloud of mist in the courtroom. But part of her envied Diane's ability to attract imaginative men like Max who Alexis had thought would be strictly vanilla. Why wouldn't she have the same luck?

"Oh Jax…I heard that Jerry has returned to PC and I can't…I won't…succumb to his brand of seduction again…I promised myself I would not pick up any more bad boys."

Jax looked troubled.

"I've heard the rumors too but I haven't seen him," he said, "I spent my morning bailing Carly out of jail again…ever since Brenda returned…there's just not enough room in this town for two divas."

"Forget about Carly…she's always been trouble and I warned you about her," Alexis said, "This is about me and my tendency to wind up getting screwed by one bad boy after another and the sex has been great but the rest of it…"

Jax held up his hand.

"I thought you were dating Mac."

Alexis sighed.

"I wouldn't exactly call it that," she said, "I mean Mac's nice and he's nice to look at but he's just not dangerous."

Jax looked puzzled.

"Dangerous?"

She sighed impatiently.

"You know what I mean…a bad, bad boy who brings out the bad girl in myself…the one I keep suppressed underneath these lawyerly outfits…I just feel so alive when I'm with them…like a real woman not the mother of three children who could be a…"

Alexis dropped her voice to a whisper.

"a _grandmother_…"

Jax smiled, his blue eyes filled with mirth, his cheeks dimpling.

"Oh Alexis I don't think you have to worry about anyone mistaking you for being a grandmother…"

She smiled, being reminded of how sweet and thoughtful her favorite husband could be…and a reminder that at one time she had been able to snag herself a younger sexy man even though they never hit the sheets.

"I'm sorry to disrupt your day with this Jax," Alexis said, "but I'm on trial for my life and if I succumb to my urge to get back together with your brother…I'll mess up any chance I have for an acquittal…It's bad enough I have the Q patriarch on my jury…he's never forgiven me for that runaway bride thing I pulled on Ned."

He went over and embraced his ex-wife.

"It's going to all work out," he said, "It has in your earlier murder trials hasn't it?"

Alexis thought about that and he was kind of right with that assessment.

"You're right…I'll go right home and put all thoughts of Jerry…no wait I won't even mention what's his name and I'll call up Mac and we'll go out for an ice-cream sundae."

Jax nodded approvingly and she said goodbye to him so he could get back to the business of running a five-star hotel, the only non-fleabag in PC and she could get back to…well get back to doing something to whittle away the time before the next court date.

She left him and as she headed back to her car, a killer's eyes followed her.


	24. Chapter 24

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* * *

The two of them kissed for an entire 10 minutes before coming up for air. The passerby just stared at them in thinly disguised disgust before moving down the street but the couple engaged in the passionate interlude paid little notice because after all…they were in love.

Or at the very least, serious lust, and Sam for one believed being in Jason's muscular arms just felt so right, after all he was the first man she had met since dropping in on PC that she hadn't shared with her mother. Some might say that she poached into her mother's collection of husbands and lovers but that was so not true. Still, she felt the incriminating stares at her as she wandered through town, from its fleabag motels to its honky tonk bars. Unless of course she was in the embrace of PC's hottest and most dangerous man, one who toted twin Magnums wherever he traveled and the hails of gunfire that had signified him had only been done when absolutely necessary.

PC was if not a better or safer place for having someone like Jason within it, was certainly a more exciting town. Sonny had mentored Jason after taking him under his wing when Jason had that…car accident that few people mentioned anymore. But ever since the two men had divorced, Jason had been a bit moody which just wasn't like him because he really didn't have much in the ways of emotion.

Which was perfectly fine with Sam because being of a histrionic bent, she had more than enough for the both of them. Besides, the sex was spectacular in terms of sheer gymnastics and he had hefty bank accounts all over the world and had given her unlimited use of his plastic. So Sam who had dabbled at exploring ship wrecks and being a con artist like her dear old daddy could spend weeks ordering sushi and sitting in front of the shopping networks on the tube with her cell phone on speed dial so she could quickly take advantage of any great limited offers.

"Oh Jason…you're just so hot…"

Jason grunted because most of the time his vocabulary was fairly limited.

"Sam…do you think that Sonny's having a hard time?"

Sam sighed, and then pulled a pack of gum out of her pocket. She grabbed a stick and after unwrapping it popped it in her mouth. Then she did the same with another, and another…Jason just watched her expressionless.

It vexed her to no end when Jason kept interjecting his former business partner into the conversation. Sure she had slept with Sonny herself, even had gotten pregnant with a baby that _might_ have been his but Jason, his feelings for Sonny were just on a whole other astroplane.

"Jason honey…don't take this wrong but remember what I told you what to do when you get these…thoughts."

Jason drew a blank one on that one then his eyes lit up and he slapped his face hard with a hand.

"Better?"

His cheeks flushed, he nodded. And she caressed his face gently.

"You've got to stop feeling guilty about your decision to go into business with yourself…and stop thinking about its affect on him…He'll get over it…eventually."

Jason nodded again but something…well you could never be too sure about what he was thinking or feeling at any given time.

Sam wrapped her arms around him and reached into his back pocket. There, she snagged a plastic card with her fingers and deftly pulled it out and put it in her own pocket before her lips met his own for one of their killer kisses. They were still smooching when Maxie walked on by, dressed in a flowery dress and capped with a beret.

"PDA alert," she bellowed.

Jason and Sam finally broke off again gasping for air and looked at an irked Maxie who tapped her foot at them.

"What's up," Sam asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ears.

"Mac said that there's a killer on the loose…that some chick had her eyes poked out and they haven't turned up yet."

Sam looked at Jason and they both wondered if her mother had an alibi.

"No, Mac doesn't think it's Alexis," Maxie said, "but then since he drools over her all the time, he's somewhat biased."

Sam hitched up her loose pants.

"It's not my mother…there must be another diabolical killer walking the streets…Jason, quick we got to go find him…"

Jason blinked his eyes.

"Now?"

She looked at him impatiently.

"Yes now…I want to get him caught and have us declared town heroes before the sales close on PC Drive…I need a dress for that first annual what's it called celebration of some dead town founder that's coming up?"

Jason considered it and then nodded.

"Let's go then…"

Maxie just looked at both of them. Sam really didn't have a lick of sense in her head if she thought it was even safe to go to any of these first annual events where a lot of noteworthy denizens surrounded by nameless extras showed up mainly to get slaughtered one by one. But then eying her threads, Maxie had decided that Sam was lacking in so many areas.

"Be careful…," she called after them as they split.

Because even Maxie sensed that the streets of PC had become just a little bit more deadly.

* * *

Alexis had returned to what used to be Rosie's Diner after she had spent time with her favorite ex-husband. She had to stamp out her lingering feelings about the last time she had felt Jerry's hands on her, his mouth against her ear whispering seductively, oh her toes curled just at the memory. Oh, if he hadn't turned out to be a psychotic, remorseless killer, things could have worked out so much better between them. But there was no point in trying to change a man, because Alexis had discovered that it didn't work out very well. She looked up and saw that the coffee she had ordered was being delivered by Robin.

A sweet young girl who still wore the decoder ring given to her by that cute little alien friend she had made as a little girl. Robin was the bravest woman she had ever known after all, she had delivered her little Molly by performing an emergency caesarean after that train wreck. Alexis knew that any train that had the majority of PC's dignitaries on it was doomed to crash and burn but she had gotten aboard it anyway.

Robin handed her the much needed java and Alexis looked at her expectantly.

"Oh I'm subbing for the waitress…Georgie..,"

Alexis frowned. Hadn't a girl by that name been killed by one of the town's many serial killers? She vaguely remembered reading about it in the newspaper, not that it concerned her.

"I thought Georgie…well she passed away…"

Robin smiled brightly.

"Oh only in the physical form…her spirit still lingers and occasionally she reappears even here…and I believe that she watches over all of us."

Alexis never embraced any of what were called the new aged beliefs, the closest she had come was sharing some happy grass with Spinelli.

"I've never seen her but then again I wouldn't know what she looked like anyway."

Robin's eyes grew dreamy.

"She's so beautiful…so ethereal and filled with grace…blue eyes like the midday sky, luscious locks of blonde hair like straw spun into gold and ruby red lips."

Alexis watched the emotions play out on the doctor's face and thought to each his own she guessed.

"Well I just wonder why a sweet person like her would want to hang around PC instead of going someplace nicer like heaven?"

Robin's eyes suddenly grew serious which they rarely did so what she had to say next might be important so Alexis actually paid attention.

"I think she's returned to our plane of existence to warn us."

Now Alexis felt lost, warn them about what? Not to wear knitted scarves on foggy nights when a killer lurked? Not realizing that the only good Alcazar was a dead one?

"I suppose that might be true," Alexis said, sipping her java, "Stranger things have happened after all."

Robin nodded in agreement.

"And there are stranger things to come," she said, "I woke up this morning and my ring, it started to glow in three different colors…see…"

Alex examined the ring but couldn't make out anything remarkable about it. Was it possible that Robin was becoming delusional? The young woman had been working hard holding GH together given that Lollypop Liz rarely showed up anymore and Patrick, well he had a thing for picking up women prone to becoming insanely jealous.

"Oh okay…so if she's coming to warn us, what would that warning be?"

Robin concentrated as hard as she could to come up with some idea.

"I hope it's not that I'm going to the guillotine," Alex said with a sigh.

Robin shook her head.

"No it's not about you…I think it has to do with Helena…"

Alexis wasn't shocked to hear the name of her hated stepmother invoked because she usually popped up in PC when something bad happened but then Robin's face became contorted losing its innocent beauty and her voice changed…

"Beware…death has come to PC…"

Okay, that was somewhat vague, because this was PC after all, Alexis reasoned but wait…that voice…was it…no it couldn't be….

_Was it Mikos?_


	25. Chapter 25

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* * *

Robin blinked as if she were totally unaware that she had just been used as a conduit to the spirit world. Alexis just looked at her in total shock because the voice that had spewed out of her mouth sounded like…no it couldn't be…her father Mikos, probably the most insane branch of the entire Cassadine tree.

And that was no small feat.

Every male member of that royal family had been a ticking time bomb when it came to rational thinking, the female members had merely been homicidal. Obviously, she, Alexis, hadn't been the exception to that rule even though in her case, every killing that she remembered having committed had been so totally justified. That had to be the latest killing she had been charged with and now was facing at trial. There was no doubt in her mind that she would be exonerated as she had been of her previous murders and faking insanity in this case would be so unnecessary.

But she had shed the hated persona of Natasha years ago…buried it so deeply beneath her intellect, her hubris and her neuroses, so deeply that no one not even that kindly shrink from years ago could find it. Only Luke Spencer used that moniker as a term of endearment and several times…she had itched to slice into his jugular with the stiletto knife she always carried in her clutch purse…but engaging in breathing exercises, two seconds of inhalation, double that out had pushed those murderous tendencies away.

Robin smiled at her looking more than a bit befuddled.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Alexis shook her head and pasted a smile on her face.

"No…no…I was just lost in my own thoughts," she said, "You know I was so sorry to hear about you and Patrick…what a scoundrel…but once a ladies' man always one, so they say…"

Robin looked even more confused.

"Alexis…Patrick and I are doing just fine," she said, "I have forgiven him for the lapse he had with Lisa…and Zoe and Monica…he can't help who he is and I love him for it."

Alexis furrowed her brow, why was the woman standing in front of her who was one of the most dedicated and skillful surgeons that ever saved her life proving to be such a doormat when it came to allowing men like Patrick to stomp on her heart? And Lisa had gone homicidal when Patrick remembered being a married man and a father putting Robin in horrible danger…oh these young people…she and Liz who had…sniff…children by different men…what was PC coming to these days?

Yes, she had children by two different men but at least they were brothers and it's not like she had any action in between them. The younger women in this town could learn by her example of how proper women behaved.

Alexis shook her head.

"Have you noticed anything strange about your voice lately?"

Robin frowned and put her hand on her chest.

"My voice…what's wrong with it," she said, "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Alexis's heart skipped a beat, had Robin always been a channel for evil spirits like that of Mikos?

"You mean it's happened before?"

"What…that I sound like a little girl?"

Relief filled Alexis because despite all her problems which didn't give her much time to think outside of herself, she kind of liked Robin.

"No…it's just that for a moment there, I thought you sounded like my father…but he's been dead for years."

Robin nodded.

"Ah yes, I heard he froze this whole entire town…of all the places he could have froze…big cities in the world, he had to terrorize our little community."

Yeah, Alexis thought that had been a trifle bit unfair but she had been away in boarding school when that had happened getting impregnated and having a daughter which she apparently forgot about so how could she possibly remember about a tiny town getting put on ice?

Suddenly Robin looked sad.

"I must go…Patrick is waiting…."

Alexis watched the young woman go and thought someone really needs to put some backbone under her Christmas tree instead of the usual trivial gifts. But how could Mikos had crossed from the brimstone of Hell and use this gentle young woman as a vessel to communicate with the daughter he never knew?

Alexis had to sit still for a little while to figure that one out.

Lulu still wearing her poodle skirt walked up to kiss her honey, Johnny Wonderful after she reached his apartment. His shirt was unkempt and a couple buttons were missing when he greeted at the door after she rung the bell…like three times. But maybe he had a surprise for her, something wonderful more so than the ticket to paradise, and had to hide it away before opening the door. Yes, that had to be it and she waited giddy with anticipation.

But what had greeted her had seriously made her wonder.

She sniffed her nose and looked at him oddly.

"That's not your cologne Johnny."

He straightened his shirt and smiled back at her.

"Yes it is, you bought it for me yourself," he said, "Don't you remember?"

Yeah, maybe she did, her memory for details was a bit fuzzy these days and then she smiled happily because of course she had bought him that cologne for what…well she couldn't remember very much but that had to be right. Then she noticed something…

"That's not my shade of lipstick either," she said, "I wear bubblegum pink and that's one of those naughty colors."

He chuckled.

"Baby, you're seeing things," he said, "Your memory must be playing tricks on you."

She started to say something then stopped.

"Oh yeah, I think you're right….Oh Johnny Wonderful what would I do without you?"

He embraced her while she ran her hands through his luscious locks of hair.

"Oh baby, I hope you don't have to find out," he said, "because we are so good together."

She nestled closer to the man of her dreams and then her eyes caught some movement by the door and she saw it close abruptly. She pulled away from him quickly.

"Johnny what was that?"

"What was what?"

She pointed to the bedroom door.

"That…that…there's someone in there," she said, "I thought you decided not to get a roommate."

He plastered an innocent expression on his face, the kind that made the women around him sigh longingly. But Lulu considered herself a smart cookie, even though her parents had ignored her while she grew up focusing more of their attention on the boy child. So she marched over to the door and flung it open and there…there…she saw Liz dressed up in a French maid's costume.

"Hi Lulu, long time no see," Liz said, cheerfully.

Lulu's mouth hung open. Since when did Johnny hire a maid to clean his apartment and why had he hired Elizabeth who as far as she knew didn't even do her own cleaning.

"Liz…you can go now," Johnny said, "The bedroom…looks like it's never been slept in…"

Liz beamed and then reached for a coat to wrap around her outfit, which hung off of her. Maybe Liz had to moonlight as a house cleaner because she didn't make enough working at GH to feed herself. Yes, that had to be it because nothing else made sense, how kind Johnny had been to give her the job, even though there hadn't been much cleaning to do since she usually took care of it.

Liz picked up her bag and with a smile took off to give them leave and when she did, Lulu just beamed at her boyfriend thinking what a kind soul he had been to help another person in need.

So much cruelty in the world including in PC but she had somehow managed to land herself a real prince of a boyfriend.


	26. Chapter 26

Edward Q sat on the patio in front of his magnificent garden while he ate his morning omelet, which had been served alongside with some dry toast with marmalade and freshly squeezed by Alice the cook. He had one of the servants sample each menu item just in case his ruthless daughter, Tracy had slipped some poison in his food again. Having the chauffeur rush him to GH to get his stomach pumped just got old after a while and he wasn't a young man.

He had hoped her rash marriage to that no-good gigolo Luke Spencer would at least keep her too busy to try killing him so she could inherit what was left of ELQ. Every time he wrote her out of the will, Tracy turned into something that remotely resembled a human and he ended up weakening and sticking her back in. Besides with Alan gone…life had proved to be too short to be estranged from his flesh and blood even those twigs on the tree who just last week had tried to hire a hit man to pick him off during the latest murder trial involving Alexis.

Not knowing that offing the foreman of a jury had to be some sort of extra-serious crime which meant that any guilty perpetrator could be executed twice instead of just once. But Edward didn't even know where Tracy had gone now, she supposedly had left with Luke on some belated, belated honeymoon but Edward being a shrewd man knew Luke didn't love his latest wife.

He picked up the newspaper ignoring the judge's admonition not to read anything about the trial but he soon noticed it had gotten scant news coverage. What dominated the front page was the latest catfight between two of Sonny's women, Carly and Brenda who dropped into town every once in a while just to stir up the pot before vanishing in a cloud of fog, one of the way that people came and went in this town. Mac, the sorry excuse for a police commissioner had announced that no charges had been filed against either women by Sonny or anyone else. Edward rolled his eyes at that revelation, knowing that Sonny probably had enjoyed the spectacle in front of him, what man wouldn't get off on two women fighting over him?

Eddy had known that back in the day, back when things in PC were really rough and tough…and dangerous too. Not Milquetoast like they were today, PC today was for simpering wimps. After all, how many people knew that he and Lila had hosted soirees in their ballroom and had a padded dungeon in the basement?

He tossed down the newspaper, double checked his food again and then continued eating while in waltzed Brook Lyn dressed up in some god awful dreary outfit. What on earth was this waif doing inside the manor? Had Alice left the door open for five minutes and allowed just anyone off the streets to wander right in?

"Hey Eddy Q…what's up?"

He looked up from his juice.

"Who are you?"

Brook Lyn blinked her heavily made up eyelids at the older man looking incredibly broody or bored; Edward couldn't tell and didn't much care. He just wanted her out of his sight.

"You're on the jury on that murder trial right," she asked, sitting down at the table and helping herself to some of his toast, "I'm on the same jury!"

"That's…appalling…"

Brook Lyn shrugged.

"Isn't it," she said, "Why do I have to do my civic duty when I could be cutting my next album…well actually my first album since my singing career was aborted by that horrible string of murders…so unfair of that killer to mess up my ambitions."

Edward swatted her hand away from his food.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

She shook her head and rested her unkempt head on her hand, looking at him.

"Nah…can I have the keys to the corvette?"

Edward's brows rose.

"No you can't…that car belonged to Dylan and will remain in the garage until I die…and think about returning him into the will."

Brook Lyn blinked her eyes again.

"You're really ticked off with him for nearly getting those two girls pregnant," she said, "I can totally understand…Lulu's a no-good Spencer skank and Georgie…she's a tease right up to the moment that Diego killed her…she drove him to it, the poor guy."

"Diego came from a family of killers," Edward pointed out, "He lacked the ability to cover up for his crimes and pin them on someone else."

Brook Lyn shrugged.

"I suppose…I just thought he was kind of hot…I could have tamed his bad boy ways if only he'd given me the chance…"

Edward just shook his head at her.

"The younger generation…"

Brook Lyn just looked at him, shrugged again and then started in on his omelet.

* * *

Jax read about the murders in the morning newspaper, the string of them that someone had finally noticed, young girls who had been to PC High who were all discovered in various locations missing their eyes. He grimaced when he got to that part of the article where several of PC's remaining shrinks offered up theories as to why the eyes had been surgically removed with some kind of sharp implement.

"If the eye offends thee, so plucketh it," one expert said, "It's someone who's obviously had intensive training steeped in religious training…and if both eyes were taken, then the victims really offended the killer."

Others disagreed.

"The eye is the window to the soul and the killer by taking the eyes out is collecting souls like some grim reaper," another speculated.

Another old lady, an expert on avian psychology disagreed with both of them.

"It's the birds…they are attacking in the stealth of night and they have all conspired through beak and feather to take over the world."

Jax didn't know much about such things, in fact he didn't know about a lot of topics beyond business and surfing…and hooking up with women associated with his nemesis, Sonny. But about such serious things as murders, mayhem and homicidal birds he knew so little.

Besides he had worse problems to consider than just the fact that young girls were getting murdered in PC, he had a horrible economic crisis on his hands. Now that Mac the police commissioner and Mayor what's his name had decided to cancel the prom, he was going to be out the money he could have collected on all the rooms and suites in his hotel because couples attending prom wouldn't be engaging in the most time honored prom ritual in his hotel of hitting the sheets.

And his hotel had gotten so much bad press lately, what with terrorist bombings and fires reducing it to rubble more than once. What had made it worse is that his very own brother, Jerry had been the ringleader in one of those nefarious episodes. Only his business acumen had kept his hotel from going under and he felt he had just begun to crawl his way out of the rubble of near bankruptcy when he had gotten the news about the cancellation of prom.

How would he stop his pride and joy from imminent foreclosure if there was no high school prom? He sighed at his desk, and watched as the merger papers in front of him became sprinkled with hairs from his own head from all the stress.

Then the door opened and inside she crept, the woman with the blond hair, the stylish clothes from Fifth Avenue and the attitude…but who was this woman…his recollection of her eluded him.

"Are you…"

She smiled and walked up to his desk and extended a gloved hand.

"I'm Faith…not the evil Faith Roscoe who did all those horrible things…I'm the newly reformed and reinvented Faith who's devoting her life to altruistic pursuits."

Jax looked at the vision in front of him uncertainly, after all her skin when the sunlight hit it just right, glittered like tiny diamonds. But maybe she could help him and if she could do that, then he would put all her past transgressions aside for the greater good.

"Why are you here?"

She sat on his desk and reached over so close enough so that her breath hinting of lilacs brushed his face.

"I'm here to help you…I'm here to help you get prom back on track."

Suspicion filled his features because Jax considered himself a very wise man in and out of the business arena. No one would ever pull the wool over his eyes, no way, no how.

"Why…even if you could pull off the impossible…why would you do it," he said, "you always hated teenagers."

Her eyes lit up amber and then she smiled to reassure him.

"I…that couldn't be further from the truth," she said, "I just don't want these teens in PC to be emotionally destroyed by being denied a rite of passage that is so important for them."

Jax nodding, believing that she sounded sincere.

"Okay…how do you plan on doing this?"

She leaned even closer and whispered in his ear, her voice tickling his senses.

"Just do what I tell you to do…"

And outside of the hotel window, the leaves began to wilt on the branches of the trees and the birds stopped singing.


	27. Chapter 27

Dante walked in on Mac who had just gotten off the phone with Mayor what's his name and stood there admiring his new boss. Mac had his own issues in his own family tree but he still managed to be an upstanding law enforcement officer and model father to the children of a woman who had abandoned them all. What he would do if he could just strike Sonny out of his family lineage and substitute Mac instead? Maybe the commissioner would settle just for adopting him.

But Olivia, the woman who didn't want anyone to know she was old enough to be his mother would probably veto it very quietly. She had this thing still for his father even though she had spent most of the time carousing around the punk known as Johnny Wonderful. The guy might think he was the second coming of Frankie Avalon dressed up like James Dean but Dante had been around the block a time or two and he just knew that Johnny was bad news.

Now if he could just get Lulu to see the true man behind the façade because Dante really cared about her even though their fling hadn't amounted to very much. She thought that he was hung up on Brook Lyn but nothing could be further from the truth. He had just gotten drunk that night at Luke's place and the nearest warm body when the clock struck midnight signifying the New Year had been her. He had tried to explain that all to Lulu so she would understand, but she hadn't been answering his calls.

Mac looked up and his expression was quite grim.

"What's up," Dante asked.

Mac slammed the folder shut and sighed heavily. The burden of all of PC's underbelly was on his shoulders. That and the fact that his latest flirtation, Alexis had been put on trial for murder again though the details of the crime seemed murky at best. But then so had his longtime ago fling with Brenda who was now batting eyelashes at his father again.

Another reason to wish that Mac were his father instead.

"These senseless murders…three young girls all from PC High, all found dead with their eyes missing."

"Any leads?"

Mac shook his head sadly.

"Not a one…and then when I walked past the main strip, I noticed that the air had fallen silent because all these songbirds had fallen out of the trees dead on the ground."

Dante shook his head grimly.

"That's not good…maybe there's a connection?"

Mac opened up the file again and Dante saw the faces of all the victims during happier times.

"Is this why prom's been canceled?"

Mac nodded.

"Yes…I didn't want to do it but I called the Mayor and he's agreed that this is what needs to be done."

Dante sighed, knowing he didn't have any better suggestions but admiring Mac's fortitude anyway.

"You're such a nice man Dante," Mac said, "I have a daughter I'd really like you to meet…well she's not really my daughter…her parents abandoned her to go find themselves."

"You mean Maxie…I've met her but she's married isn't she?"

Mac shrugged.

"Yeah to a no-good computer hacker and dope dealer," he said, "I had hoped for much better for her."

Dante beamed at that because obviously Mac must consider him among the much better men for his daughter to know. And he considered Maxine as he called her, a cute chick if a little bit mouthy.

They both looked up suddenly and saw that a harried looking Alexis had entered the office wearing a long coat and a scarf around her neck.

Mac looked at her and offered her a seat.

"No I can't stay," Alexis said breathlessly, "I heard about the murders and I swear I didn't do them."

Mac sighed with some compassion.

"Alexis no one thinks that you did," he said, "This is someone really deranged and we must find him or her before the next body turns up."

Alexis exhaled, the relief so palpable she nearly passed out.

"Thank you so much darling," she said, "I didn't kill anyone…well except for Luis and some others and they all deserved it."

Mac looked at Alexis gravely.

"We're looking at a couple of suspects," he said, "and the fact that Jerry's been rumored to have returned to PC again."

Just the mention of that name sent a rush of heat through Alexis' body and visions of the steamy night they had spent together on his boat inundated her faster than she could stop them. She needed something to fan herself with…now so she reached for Mac's file and started doing just that.

"Alexis…that's…"

"What did you just say about Jerry," she asked casually.

Mac looked at Dante.

"There's an unsubstantiated report that he's been seen at the waterfront…and that's where some of the bodies have been found."

Alexis protested.

"That doesn't mean that he killed these girls," she said, "Maybe you should check to see if my wicked stepmother has an alibi."

"Helena's not been showing her face recently," Mac said, "at least as far as anyone knows though she's ditched her GPS device again."

"But I know that Jerry's bad…he's very, very, very bad," Alexis said, "but he's got no motive."

"He doesn't need one," Mac said, "He's a masterminded criminal and terrorist even if his brother is neither. He'd kill for the pure sport of it."

Alexis thought that might be true…in most circumstances but he had reformed for her. He told her so.

Now she realized she had to find him despite her better judgment and now she had the perfect excuse to do so. Jerry's life was now in horrible danger and only she could save him.

Kristina looked at her older sister who had her hands all over Jason and just rolled her eyes at the display. Jason deserved so much better than Sam, meaning someone like her.

Finally the couple came up for air, with Jason blinking his eyes and Sam readjusting her clothes.

"Where were we…," she mumbled, "Weren't we supposed to find the killer?"

"Which killer…?"

Sam looked momentarily confused.

"I can't remember which one but I'm sure it will come to me."

Kristina just walked up to him, in her designer outfit and cool shoes. Surely Jason must know the difference between a sophistically styled young woman like herself and a uncouth slob like her sister.

"What's going on here," she asked sweetly.

They both looked at her.

"There's a killer running loose," Sam muttered.

"There's always a killer running loose in PC," Kristina noted, "and when there's not, my father picks up the slack."

Sam's mouth hung open.

"How can you say such a thing," she said, "Sonny's got his faults but underneath it all, he's very loving."

Kristina folded her arms.

"Is there any man that Mom's been with that you haven't slept with?"

Sam started fidgeting with her hair.

"Well no,..But I swore that I wouldn't touch Mac."

Kristina doubted that her sister would ever be able to control herself long enough to keep that promise. She wonder if she could swipe a DNA sample, say a hair from her brush, to rush off for some testing because she had some serious doubts that Sam was indeed really her sister.

Really they looked and dressed nothing alike.

"I think Mac is concerned about all these murders," Kristina said, "of the girls in my school or they would be if I actually attended,"

Sam looked up at Jason puzzled.

"Oh yeah right, that's who we were trying to find right?"

Jason shrugged.

Kristina just shook her head at the both of them.

"They were all found without eyes…doesn't that sound strange?"

Sam nodded sagely.

"Yes it does…but don't worry Me and Jason will get down to the bottom of it."

Kristina seriously doubted it but someone had to solve the murders because if no one caught the killer, then prom would for sure be cancelled. Life was just so unfair. Not that she had any idea who she would take to prom but now she wouldn't even get to figure that out.

"Jason, I guess we'd better get back to searching," Sam said, stroking his face.

"Yeah right baby," he said, "I'm ready when you are…"

Sam considered that carefully.

"How about in a minute…"

Then she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer to her once again, leaving Kristina standing there just looking at them in disgust before walking off.

Lulu came rushing up to her out of breath.

"Oh Johnny Wonderful…he's just so wonderful."

Kristina braved herself for the latest gush fest from Lulu about her current boyfriend.

"What'd he do this time?"

Lulu clasped her hands.

"He hired Liz to clean his house so she could make extra money to feed her family."

Kristina's forehead wrinkled.

"Did he tell you that?"

Lulu nodded.

"Right after I walked in his pad and saw her in his bedroom dressed up in one of those little maid outfits."

Kristina sighed.

"Lulu, I hate to break this to you," she said, "but those outfits aren't made for cleaning…"

The other girl looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Your boyfriend has some weird fantasies and it sounds like Liz was there to fulfill them."

The light went out of Lulu's eyes but Kristina hoped some common sense had filled the void that it left.

"My boyfriend…My Johnny Wonderful would never do such a thing…he's just so devoted to me…he buys me presents…trips…this lovely necklace."

Kristina shrugged figuring that Lulu just wasn't ready for the truth.

"Whatever…Well I got to go now," she said, "See you later."

Lulu just watched her go, her eyes brimming with tears. She never saw the shadow falling over her,


	28. Chapter 28

Alexis tried to drink her coffee straight but found herself pouring brandy into it along with the usual two cubes of sugar. Diane just sat there eschewing coffee and sticking with the hard liquor that she carried in her purse.

"I knew he'd come back for me…"

Diane looked at her friend puzzled.

"Alexis, I've heard the rumors too but you know better than to believe anything anyone says in this town."

Alexis shook her head as she clutched her drink.

"No…he's here…lurking somewhere and I don't know if I'm strong enough to resist him."

"You've got to be strong for your daughters Alexis…you are on trial for your life and if the jury got wind of you associating with him…they look like they want to hang you already."

"I know Edward does…but not for any murder but because I ditched Ned at the altar years ago."

Diane sipped her drink.

"He's the foreman so you have to get on his good side somehow…

Alexis sighed after taking a slug of her drink.

"I can't…he keeps giving me the evil eye…and Ned's daughter, Brooke Ann is also on the jury."

Diane shook her head.

"Then you have your work cut out for you…"

Alexis scowled.

"You were going to be my attorney until you got the contempt charge."

Diane shrugged.

"What can I say; I'm a woman who still has it…"

"I did…when I was with Jerry," Alexis said, "He just made me feel so alive just with his fingertips, never mind the rest of him."

"Well Alexis, even if the sex was great, it's not worth going to the guillotine over and that's exactly what happens if the press gets wind that you're even having illicit thoughts about a known terrorist."

Alexis nodded.

"I know…but the police are out looking for him right now," she said, "They think he killed those girls…but I know he's innocent."

Diane threw her a funny look.

"How do you know…Oh never mind…don't tell me."

Alexis took another big sip.

"I know he is…because I think I know who did the killings…"

Diane raised her brows.

"Do tell…I have 20 minutes to kill before I have to go untie Max."

Alexis took a deep breath, well two so she wouldn't start hyperventilating again.

"Mikos committed the murders," she said.

Diane rubbed her forehead, trying to remember something crucial here like the fact that the patriarch of the Cassadine clan had been dead for years now.

"But Alexis…"

Alexis raised her hand.

"I know he's supposed to be dead…but he spoke to me."

"How…Alexis are you hearing those voices inside your head again?"

Alexis shook her head.

"No…he spoke using another person as his conduit from the other side and he issued a warning…"

Diane just looked at the expression on her friend's face and wondered if this time Alexis was actually losing it for real.

"And who was this person that he used to communicate with you?"

"Robin…"

Diane had to struggle from bursting out into laughter.

"You mean…how could anyone even such a diabolical force as Mikos communicate from the grave, let alone use Robin as a vessel."

Alexis threw up her arms.

"I don't know, but I know that the voice that came from her lips wasn't hers…and I remember what Mikos sounds like from recordings that Helena saved in the Cassadine historical archives."

"You could be mistaken," Diane said, "You do know how impossible this all sounds even for this town."

Alexis frowned.

"Do you think he was warning me not to get back with Jerry?"

Diane simply shook her head at Alexis who had to be absolutely hopeless and she looked at her watching thinking she had to get back to Max, a distraction in her busy life but a most welcome one.

* * *

Brenda simpered up to where Sonny sat and read the latest figures on his (cough)coffee(cough) importing business that provided insight onto the profit margins of his business.

"Sonny…do you love me?"

He kept his eyes on the facts in front of him, trying to think of ways to cut his operational budget, eliminate some malingers on his employee roster. With Jason gone, he would have to do some of that untidy work himself. Unpleasant to be sure but it had to be done.

"Sonny…do I mean more to you than your company?"

He punched some more numbers in the calculator while the petite woman with flowing black locks and pouty lips moved seductively around him.

"Sonny…would you give it up all for me?"

He nodded, still focused on his paperwork.

"Sure baby sure…Remember, who's your daddy?"

She cooed and she smiled at those words and then pulled out a nail file and started working on her talons. Because after all, even though the judge had warned her not to come within 100 feet of Carly, she never trusted that trailer trash witch and she had to be ready…to defend herself of course.

And for doing that last night, she had spent several hours enduring the hellish conditions of the PC police department lockup with the lowlifes who had been housed in there, including Carly. Both hadn't stayed there long because Sonny had come to bail out Brenda of course while an embarrassed Jax forked over the bail money for his wife. Not at the same time of course because the two men couldn't stand to be in the same room together due to some feud years ago that neither of them remembered. But that was then and not to be repeated ever again and this was now. Brenda chose to focus on the present and that meant getting her hands on some plastic and checking out the sales at PC's most exquisite boutiques.

"Sonny…

Wordlessly, he reached into his wallet and pulled out a wad of credit cards.

"Go out and get something nice for dinner tonight," he said, still focused on his ledger.

She sighed, flipped her hair back, wrapped her silk scarf around her neck and waltzed out the door.

* * *

Liz arrived at GH after having rushed home to change out of her French maid costume and into her uniform. She sighed, wondering how she could have forgotten that she worked tonight. Actually she had been put in charge by Patrick of running the entire ER during the busiest of the day's shifts. In a matter of minutes, she would be performing tracheotomies, delivering triplets and performing brain surgery with a power drill. What would GH ever do without her?

Hopefully, PC would never have to find out. Pregnant with her fourth child, she would be going on maternity leave soon enough, strange because she hadn't felt all that pregnant that morning but now…she paused for the orderly to wipe the sweat off of her brow while she prepared to resection some torn intestine in the middle of the GH lobby.

"Scalpel," she called.

One had been handed to her and she concentrated beads of perspiration on her face while she prepared to slice the entrance into the bowel.

Lulu had been sitting in the lobby with Johnny Wonderful who had an accident shaving and had to be sewn up by Lisa who flirted with him dangerously. Lulu kept a close eye on that one…not that she didn't trust her boyfriend because she knew he would always be true to her but that hussy…she had seen how she had seduced the more vulnerable Patrick with her siren call. So she had one sharp eye, worthy of a Spencer, on Lisa and another on Johnny's new maid who had switched from doing surgery to doing CPR right on the floor.

"Where's the paddles," Liz barked.

Diane rushed up forward with a nice looking one with a fur handle.

"You can borrow mine as long as I get it back…"

Liz just looked at it and sighed impatiently.

"Not that kind…the kind you…you… you know…shock someone back from the dead...with."

Soon enough a pair of orderlies rolled the cart up to where Liz had been engaged in saving a man's life.

And everyone held their breath to see what she would do next.


	29. Chapter 29

Alexis had watched as Diane rushed on out of the eatery to return to where she had left off with Max and had left her flask behind. So Alexis had poured what was left of it in her own cup. She didn't even think about whether this was wise or not, she didn't even think at all. She just knew that if she numbed her senses even further then she could forget the nightmare that her life had become. Oh, it had been bad enough when it had been a mere train wreck but Alexis thought back to the last time she had been like, the belle of the ball. Then she remembered that the last time she had attended a ball where she hadn't been upstaged by a brutal murder, had been back in high school and that entire chapter of her life remained a blur.

After all, didn't she get pregnant somehow and have a daughter back then…and she couldn't even remember having sex. She had remained blissfully unaware that she had spawned a lifeform until one moment during a crisis, it had suddenly popped into her mind. And then talk about amazing coincidences, that right when she remembered she had a daughter, it had been Sam who had already had an affair and had gotten pregnant either by Alex' favorite husband or the father of one of her daughters by the time that realization hit her. What kind of Kismet was that, the world or at least the corner of it called PC was truly a wondrous place. Now, a lot of people had cautioned Alexis to run a DNA test to be absolutely sure that she was indeed Sam's mother but Alexis paid them no mind. After all, the maternal instinct ran very strong inside her and she just …knew like she should, right? Even when her precious little girl, Molly had advised her to test the interloper in their midst, Alexis had refused.

Not that Sam had never vexed her, like when she had cavorted with Alexis' least favorite husband, scoundral Rick…Yeah Reckless, a term of endearment most of the town had for the odd couple was indeed right but Alexis had jettisoned Ric to the side and had turned towards the most amazing lover she ever remembered having, Jerry or whatever his name was.

She had just gotten the harrowing news that prom had been cancelled. But she shrugged, surely she didn't have any daughters yet old enough to go to prom. Kristina had grown somewhat taller recently and had grown a surly attitude but surely Alexis wasn't old enough to have a teenaged daughter. Okay, maybe Sam was a bit older than that but she had been an abherration.

Mac had called her up immediately after Mayor What's his name had made the decision in an emergency meeting session. And Alexis had heard on the radio that the streets near City Hall were blocked with throngs of students protesting and burning Mac and the mayor in effegy. Alexis had shaken her head in reproachment, thankful that she had raised her own daughters to never buck the system, to believe that the adults in charge of it knew what was best for them.

Mac walked into the eatery and after looking around the room, sat down next to Alexis and ordered them both sundaes. Alexis asked for extra nuts on hers and she sighed warmly at the man in front of her. Mac was so sweet, so kind, so wholesome, without an ounce of danger or edginess oozing from his pores. They engaged in a few lines of flirtaceous banter and meaningful looks every six months or so when they happened to show up in the same place, bumping into each other.

"Mac…it's so good to see you again…it's been so long…"

Mac scratched his forehead.

"Yeah Alexis…I called you to ask you to go out with me…what six months ago…Time does fly."

She gave him a painful look.

"I meant to call…but…"

Oh she couldn't tell him the truth…she had thought about it but then her mind had wandered back to her last sinful moments with Jerry…when he…She swallowed noisly and fluttered her eyelashes.

"Alexis…are you okay…you look stressed."

She gave him a direct lawyerly look.

"I'm on trial for murder…again…I still don't know who I supposedly killed this time…do you?"

Mac went blank for a moment.

"I have no idea…the judge hasn't said anything yet?"

Alexis sighed.

"She arrested Diane, my first lawyer…and then Edward is on the jury with Brook Lyn and they both want me to fry for what I did to Ned like a zillion years ago…"

Mac nodded sympathetically.

"That sounds really tough Alexis…couldn't you like plead guilty and ask for community service?"

Her eyes widened.

"No…I can't Mac because I didn't do it…not this time…why is everyone in this god awful town intent on persecuting me?"

Mac didn't know the answer to that as he didn't know much about anything that was going on in this crazy corner of the universe. But he patted her hand sympathetically anyway, thinking it was the right thing to do.

* * *

Michael pounded the tree again, his face turning a bright shade of red, and the blood streamed from his clenched fists. But he felt no pain, he felt nothing at all not even the anger, the rage that had driven him to this act of assaulting another tree.

He had been grounded again by his no good mother Carly because he refused to babysit her latest child, saying that Morgan could always do it. But his mother argued that Morgan had to clean off the graffitti that he had spraypainted on the walls of many of the botiques on the main strip. If this kept up, Carly would have to have another talk with Jason about how to straighten out her boys. Sonny was useless to approach on the matter because he was too busy planning his nuptials to that Vampira who had wandered back into town desperate for more attention.

Jax had scolded Carly for getting in another public altercation with Brenda and she had been unable to promise her husband that it would never happen again. After all, she was part Spencer and they settled disputes with their fists.

But now she had to explain to Michael why he had been grounded again and before a single word came up he had taken off and ran towards the waterfront…where the trees all shrunk back in fear at which one of them would be next.

Faith licked her lips watching the young man who had been under her tulage very carefully. She had been reeling him in very careful and mindful that what she had undertaken was a matter most delicate but her influence had worn off on him as he slowly succumbed to her control. She had come back to PC thirsty for revenge and needed to develop an army of young soldiers before she could launch her offensive against those who must pay for what they did to her. After she had been banished, she had ran into Lucy who had pushed her through a rigid physical boot camp type regime and now she too had abs she could bounce a quarter off of and arms like rubber bands, both flexible and strong.

She had studied at the feet of some of the greatest minds of her time to develop the mental skills to weld control over her choice of subjects…starting with PC's youngest minds.

"Michael…."

He stopped pounding the tree and glanced over at her standing a few feet away.

"What?"

"Come here…"

He looked at her warily and she widened her smile.

"I have a much better outlet for all that righteous anger for you than a mere tree."

His brows lifted.

"You do…like what? My mother grounded me again…she loves Morgan much more than she does me."

Faith nodded.

"So true…she ignores all your gifts because she despised your father so…and he was a poor misunderstood man."

Michael listened to her.

"He was a saint especially in comparison to Sonny…but if you listen to me I will help you avenge what's been lost…when the time's right."

Michael nodded, because she did make a lot of sense. His whole life had been a travesty of justice, the way he had been treated, misunderstood.

So he listened to her as she explained to him the way it could be, and those who wronged him could pay the ultimate price.


	30. Chapter 30

Nikolas, or Prince Nik as he preferred to be called these days, lay in his favorite spot, his silk lined coffin while he brooded about his life. He had hoped to have taken the world by storm at this juncture in his life but he had yet to really earn any respect in PC let alone own a piece of it.

He had risen with the dawn though it pained him after spending the night wandering around the moors which surrounded his estate on Spoon Island. The ferry had broken down again that morning leaving her with only himself and an elderly butler who had come with the property for company. Really it had been so hard to find good help these days, what with the maids running off because they believed the house to be haunted and with having to fire the gardener because he had cut the flowers off all the roses, leaving only bundles of dead stems in the vase.

And they had all been black roses…devoid of sunshine and life…reflective of the new lord of the manor. Niklos felt that he had died long ago, his father had in between bouts of insanity been killed a couple of times and his mother, catatonic these days inside a mental institution. Every year or so when the planet and all their moons lined up, her sleeping brain would jumpstart itself and she would come to life…albeit for only a short time…say 24 hours before returning to being the sleeping princess in her tower. And damn the Spencers to the hottest pits of hell for being so selfish with that window of time that she traveled among the living, Luke most of all. Never mind that the loser caterwauled the rest of the year, with an assortment of women not to mention a wife , when Laura's eyes regained their focus, he was always there like a dictator deciding who could spend time with her and who couldn't.

And Luke had always treated Nikolas if not like as the dark prince, as the blot in the Spencer universe who couldn't be allowed to even spend time with his mother. The only Spencer who hadn't treated him like the plague had been his half sister Lulu but she had just been so busy these days…too much so to visit him anymore.

So he spent most of his days slumbering in his coffin unless he had the rare business deal to conduct and wandering the island at night…unless one of his ladies in waiting came to visit. Liz, who had taken over all the house cleaning and Brook Lyn who like him loved to wear black and who would often lie in his coffin with him looking up at the spiders weaving webs across the expansive ceiling.

Occasionally he still kept up with the news and had read somewhere that his auntie, Alexis had been charged with murder again and had been on trial. Not that this was exactly news but he supposed he should get up early one day, fix himself up and travel to PC to offer her some emotional support. But then he had sank back in his coffin, thinking way too much work.

Suddenly the phone rang and it had taken him a few rings before he heard it because he had been so preoccupied with his issues. He looked around for it, trying to remember….ah, he had to get out of his coffin to retrieve it…should he make the attempt or just let voice mail pick it up…then he heard a familiar voice.

"Nikolas, honey…pick up the damn phone…I know you can hear me and I really need to talk to you."

Damn, it was Alexis and she sounded a bit panicky. He hoped she kept her smelling salts and a shot of whiskey nearby at all times before she went into full hyperventilation mode.

Sighing, he lifted himself out and walked across the floor to the phone which glowed a bright red. Picking it up, he steeled himself for a barrage of words from his aunt.

"Nikolas…oh thank god…I thought you'd died or something…"

"No…I'm busy with some…remodeling…"

"Oh that sounds…nice but I need you to listen carefully to me," she said, "I need to know if you've seen or heard from Jerry."

Nikolas actually blinked at that.

"No…isn't he supposed to be dead or something?"

"Well yeah but there's rumors that he's been spotted back in PC again so apparently it didn't take this time…Damn him for returning right now when I'm on trial for my life."

Nikolas sighed.

"If he's here…it could be for some other reason than to see you."

"I hardly think that he's here for any other reason than to ruin my life," she said, "and he will if I don't focus on remaining strong enough to resist his…considerable charms."

Nikolas vaguely remembered something about his aunt shacking up with the psychotic terrorist at some point.

"Maybe he's here to check on his brother…"

"No Nikolas…too obvious…put on your thinking cap here," she said, "He's here to try to seduce me back into his bed."

"Alexis…I don't think…"

"That's your problem Nikky," she said, "But fortunately for you, I do think and I know that if he uses his charms on me, I don't think I'll be able to resist…and I have to say he's very, very bad in other ways besides killing, maiming and blowing people up."

Nikolas didn't think he wanted any details.

"Alexis, I'm quite busy…"

"Oh come off of it," she scolded, "You're lying in that damn coffin that belonged to your father while some woman's waiting on you…not that I'm judging you but you have enough time to listen to your auntie…"

"Sure, okay…"

And he became her captive audience while she spilled out her hopes, fears and the man she was sure would be her ultimate downfall.

Dante pushed Brenda away from him and she just looked at him, her lips in full pout mood and her eyes, flashing dangerously from underneath a generous coat of mascara. She stroked his cheek gently with a talon.

"Why not…hey I might be engaged to Sonny…but that doesn't mean anything has to change between us…"

* * *

Dante sighed, remembering their passionate interlude during his undercover job as a monk in Italy while she had been hiding out from the mafia as a nun. Not that he believed for a minute that she hadn't led a life of sin. But their passionate affair had gotten them both thrown out of the convent and asked never to return.

"But he's my father…"

She shrugged.

"All the better…to keep it in the family…"

No, Dante thought furiously, he couldn't betray his own flesh and blood in this matter not when he had already betrayed him by agreeing to work with the feds to bust his father and put him behind bars for the rest of his life. But really what was it to him, he had never asked to be Sonny's spawn and his mother, Paula was shamelessly still holding onto this Johnny Wonderful character even though he was living with that cute little belle, Lulu who deserved so much better. Dante wished that he could divorce both of his parents and he had been serious when he had hoped that Mac would adopt him and thus sever him from being a branch of the poisonous tree.

Getting back in the sack with Brenda wouldn't accomplish it, it would only drag him deeper into the abyss. He shook his head, strengthened his resolve and moved away from her.

"No…this is going to end between us," he said, "I will not share a woman with my father."

She sighed deeply, looking very hurt.

"But aren't I worth it," she said, "Everyone in PC thinks that I am…except you."

The plaintive tone of her voice nearly got through his defenses and threatened to pull him under the treacherous currents that surrounded her. He had been surprised at first that she had gravitated so quickly back to Sonny after resurfacing after the last time being involved with him had nearly gotten her killed. But he could not be an agent to her reckless life and he wouldn't be…he would just walk away from her.

"Dante…"

His heart threatened to weaken so he just plastered his mind with chaste thoughts. Just imagining with his father had been heart wrenching enough back in the day when he thought he had…no he didn't believe that the vixen next to him using her wiles on him was capable of loving anyone…not even Sonny. They were tied up in some mutually hedonistic, twisted affair which had become this huge whirlpool of death and destruction reaching out to suck anyone into it within reach.

Well, not him, Dante resolved. He closed his eyes and thought of her, Lulu, surrounded by an ethereal halo, smiling benevolently at him. The cascade of harp music filling the air where she stood, beckoning to him, trying to lure him away from the dark side.

"Lulu…"

Brenda snarled at him then.

"I'm not her…how dare you mistake me for that pathetic little creature?"

That angered him for Brenda to demean his angel in that way.

"No…Brenda," he said, wagging a finger at her, "She is all that is airy and light…and you…you are the demon's breath."

She smiled, seeming to like that.

"Hey, I know I'm naughtier than the women you're used to," she said, "but I'm just drawn that way."

He knew that too and he had to be strong to resist her attempts to draw him into a lair, for in front of him, from her ebony hair and ruby lips to her stiletto heels, was the ultimate black widow.

He repeated the mantra of his love for all that was Lulu to ward Brenda away from him and after it reached a crescendo, he heard a loud noise, and when he opened his eyes…

He saw that Brenda had vanished leaving a poof of smoke…and somewhere,. The soft voice of a woman started singing.

His eyes blinked and then saw a glimmer of gold lying on the ground that looked like a bracelet.


	31. Chapter 31

Liz sighed as she looked at the long row of costumes she had in her walk in closet including the half dozen or so French maid outfits, one for every customer she had who requested house cleaning that of course had been anything but. Of course none of them had fit because she had somehow gotten herself pregnant again but she had no idea who the father might be.

Johnny Wonderful stood out as a definite possibility and she hoped that it wasn't him because not only would it break the heart of his steady girlfriend, Lulu but it might spark a murderous rage in the young girl that Liz might not survive. It could be Nik's too and that would just spark a cat fight with any one of the women in his current harem and it would be all over nothing if she didn't give birth to a baby that sprouted wings and flew away when the sun came up.

And if it came out with a full head of hair and bushy eyebrows then she would just scream, knowing then that her one night dalliance with Coleman in the office inside his bar had hit the jackpot so to speak. Chalk that one up to too many margaritas when she had one of those rare nights out with the "girls" of PC where they compared the caliber size of their men. All of a sudden after a half a dozen rounds, Coleman had just looked so damn hot and her animalistic instincts had taken over.

Then again she had passed Sonny on the not too long ago and their eyes had met. Sonny, otherwise known as the Sperminator was just so potent that it didn't take much for him to get a woman pregnant. It couldn't be Lucky or Jason because that would just be too obvious, no it had to be some wild card out there who had knocked her up. Getting a paternity test in PC was a waste of time because the doctors, nurses or candy stripers would for the right price swap the DNA test results with someone else. She dearly hoped that Sonny wasn't the father either because when the kid grew up, he or she wouldn't be able to find a date to the prom.

She just sighed, sitting on her bed, weary of having worked the late night shift when she had performed three tracheotomies, two vasectomies and some intricate brain surgery with a corkscrew and a flashlight when the generator failed again. Patrick had flirted with her again and she had nearly slapped his face for it knowing how much Robin dearly loved her husband, the nonrepentent playboy that she had been able to domesticate.

The phone rang and she found it beneath one of her discarded costumes and discovered that it was…Robin.

"I didn't know if you were there," Robin said, "but I think that Patrick might be missing."

Liz frowned, really? Last she saw, Patrick had been living it up over free flowing booze and a couple of women at Coleman's before they all took off in a pink Cadillac, kicking up a trail of dust.

"Are you sure he's not out saving someone's life right now," Liz said, "you know what they say a doctor's work is never done."

Robin sighed and then she simpered.

"I would just know…you see he…me our relationship is so special, so pure that we have almost this psychic connection…"

No Robin obviously not, Liz thought, because if you did, you'd be calling up Diane the divorce attorney right now.

"Robin…I don't know how to tell you this but Patrick…"

"Don't tell me Liz,., don't tell me he's got a terrible illness and doesn't want to worry me with it."

"No that's not it Robin…"

"Then he's discovered that he's really adopted and he's worried about some exotic genetic disorder our daughter might have inherited."

"No…"

"No don't tell me…I am very much in tune with him and I don't need anyone to tell me what's wrong," Robin insisted, "I can sense that he's…gambled away all of our assets and is in too much pain to tell me."

God, the girl wasn't even close, Liz thought shaking her head.

"Patrick…he's just such a saint Liz, he is the best thing that ever came into my life," Robin said, "Sure he was a jerk at first but my compassion, my love and patience helped remold him into a loving husband and father."

Liz sighed, believing maybe it was better that Robin remain in the dark and totally clueless about Patrick's double life. When the truth revealed itself, it would no doubt be a huge shock to her but until then, ignorance would be bliss.

In the meantime, Liz had a stack of costumes that needed to be dry cleaned.

* * *

Kristina scoffed at the two teenage girls that had teased her about her hairstyle. Faith had told her it was awesome and would lure men to her side but the mean girls that she vaguely remembered from junior high had teased her mercilessly anyway. First prom had been cancelled because of the string of senseless murders involving PC students and now her new hair wave was the butt of jokes.

"You look like a twit, Kris," Bella said, running her fingers through her own mane.

Ophelia agreed, twisting her own braided locks. Kristina just rolled her eyes at these two insignificant girls, who no doubt would come to brutal ends themselves because they were merely members of the chorus. Still in the meantime, she wished her daddy Sonny would like send Max or some hotter looking bodyguard to like break their kneecaps or something.

The two girls in tandem mercilessly teased her until suddenly a flash of light shone through the hallway opening all the locker doors and then slamming them shut with a cacophony of clangs. Kristina blinked her eyes in amazement, were magic forces once again working in PC?

Then she looked at the end of the hallway and saw an ethereal vision, the young woman in white with flaxen hair and an upturned noise. Her memory searched for a name.

"_Georgie?"_

The young girl smiled at her and then gestured towards her with her ghostly hand. But Kristina wasn't about to go anywhere with her because Georgie had just been a total nerd, a dweeb when she had been attending PC High. Just to be seen with her even dead, would render her even more of a social pariah so she had to decline the ghost's invitation.

Georgie's frowny face reappeared and she stamped her shimmering foot and then disappeared in a huff, causing the lockers to vibrate so loudly they nearly popped off the walls.

Then the hallway grew eerily silent. And the two extras who had been standing with her looked at her totally confused…before they shook their heads and prepared to walk away.

"Did you see her back there…they always said those Davis girls were crazy...who can blame them with a mother like that!"

And Kristina realized then that they hadn't seen or heard a thing.

* * *

Mac rolled his eyes, something he so rarely did at the free spirited woman with long flowing blond hair and bell bottoms who had flounced into his office at the police station and who had sat on the edge of his desk, looking at him with luminously painted eyes.

"Felicia, is that you?"

She chuckled.

"Why yes…don't you remember me…it's not been that long."

Mac signed, believing it had been long enough since she had left him this last time to purportedly go take care of her mama in Texas when in reality she had been bumming rides on planes, trains and automobiles not to mention boats and an ox or two all over the world.

"Why did you come back?"

She just looked at him as if he were being silly with her.

"Don't be silly Mac…I'm here to see my daughters…Maxie and what's her name."

Mac blinked, wondering if he had just heard her correctly. There had been a warrant out for her arrest since the last time she had left her daughters unattended. Fortunately, he had been there to take care of them.

But where there had been two, now there as only one.

"So where are they…they'd be in high school now right?"

He pulled at his tight collar.

"Actually Maxie is running her own corporation and Georgie…she's…"

"On the honor roll right?"

Max sighed deeply, his eyes clouding with the deepest sorrow.

"Felicia, she's been dead for almost two years now."

Felicia's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Dead…really…what a bummer," she said.

Mac just looked at her, was that all she had to say about it? Her daughter had been brutally murdered and she considered it a bummer?

"It's not a bummer Felicia…it's a tragedy," he said, "Georgie was our little bright light snuffed into darkness before her time."

Felicia shrugged.

"It happens…now can you tell me where I can find Luke…he owes me ten bucks."

Mac just shook his head, wondering about the woman standing in front of him who now appeared to be a stranger. Alexis, man, that chick sure had her problems but at least she remembered she had daughters…well most of the time. But Felicia, man that was cold. A daughter brutally murdered and not much of a reaction from her own mother.

"I don't know where Luke is at the moment," Mac said, "he pulled one of his disappearing acts and no one knows where he is now."

Felicia nodded.

"Okay…I'll be back then," she said, "I have some errands to do but I'll drop by later for dinner…haven't eaten all day."

She wandered off and Mac just shook his head at her, wondering again about his choices in women that he had made…as he prepared to make dinner plans with a woman who had just been standing trial for murder. Not seeing the irony in all that.


	32. Chapter 32

Alexis looked up from where she sat outside the courtroom at the apathetic faces greeting her. You would think that they had better things to concern themselves with than the fact that she was on trial for her life. That one wrong move, one incorrect word said on the witness stand and she could be heading straight to the guillotine. Why were they all mocking her in his fashion, even the PC press had been focusing on other stories like that insignificant cat fight between Sonny's crazy ex-wife and his soon to be bride. Now, Alexis considered herself the smartest woman that Sonny had ever slept with and above all that nonsense.

Now she sat with dignity befitting a murder defendant in her smartest business suit awaiting the arrival of her newest lawyer, Julia what's her name. She had seemed intelligent but somewhat pushy and she had looked at her twin sister with such…scorn. Where did she come off doing that to her?

She looked up and saw Sam standing there biting her nails wearing her usual loosely fitting pants and bodice on top with a wrap over it. The daughter she didn't even remember ever birthing who had dropped into her life at an opportune time when she was needed by her mother. But then again, she had turned out to be the harlot cavorting with that cad, Ric when Alexis had believed herself to be dying from a terminal illness. Oddly enough it had been Jerry who had made her feel alive again with his magic touch and that mouth which could do such wicked things and even elicit more sinful thoughts. But she couldn't be thinking of him right now or she might just weaken…and she couldn't afford that at this most critical moment, could she?

Sam moved her hair out of her face.

"Um, Alexis…Jas and I think we might have a lead on the real killer…do you suppose it could be the same person who's been killing all those girls?"

Alexis hadn't known and hadn't given it much thought. She had heard that prom had been canceled again and hadn't given much thought about it. She wondered idly where Kristina had been spending her time these days because she hadn't heard her whine about the news.

"Well anyway, he and I are going to follow some more leads," Sam said, "before these murders get out of hand."

Alexis sighed, when in PC hadn't there been brutal murders taking place? She remembered the young girl with apple cheeks, flaxen hair and a pretty scarf who had been strangled by that one of the murderous Alcazars. She had thought about writing a letter to the editor asking that the city pass a law banning all Alcazars from the city limits. But she didn't think Mayor what's his name would go for it because he had received generous campaign contributions from that family.

But anyway, why was her daughter focusing all her energies on unmasking some other killer when her own mother had been prosecuted for killing someone who hadn't even been named yet? Why were her priorities so mixed up?

"Sam…how close are you to finding out who is framing me for this unknown murder?"  
Sam brushed one of her shoes against the ground and looked down.

"Well…we really tried…really but we couldn't even get a lead," she said, "though Jas said it's possible if we offer a generous reward."

Alexis fluttered her eyes.

"Reward…how are we going to do that," she said, "We're broke…well I am and I'm assuming you've been going through Jason's plastic pretty quickly."

Sam folded her arms.

"Well…yeah…I got to look nice…so I've been hitting the boutiques…"

Alexis just looked at her waif of a daughter and wondered where all that money went.

"Then how am I going to get enough money to find the real killer, that is if there was even a murder?"

Sam furrowed her brow thinking about that really hard.

"Is that one of those trick questions?"

Alexis just sighed and buried her face in her hands. Three daughters and not a selfless soul among them except maybe…

"Where's Molly," she asked, "it's been a while since I've seen her."

Sam reached into her pocket for her gum and pulled a piece out to pop in her mouth before just looking at her mother.

"Haven't seen her either," she said, "You know how quiet she gets."

Yes, Alexis knew that or thought that she did. Molly had always been her model child, as close to perfection as a little girl could be. The one daughter she never had to worry about.

"She's probably spending a lot of time working on a school project or something," Alexis said, "When is the courtroom going to open?"

Sam shrugged.

"I don't know…well I got to go now and find Jas…"

Alexis' eyes widened.

"You're leaving me…here all alone?"

Sam nodded.

"There's a lot of stuff happening today," she said, "But maybe I'll be back later."

Alexis just shook her head as her no good home wrecking daughter sauntered off, to find that thug boyfriend of hers, Jason and go make out in an empty courtroom somewhere. It's not like she didn't know what was going on with Sam, oh yes, she was on top of things with her children and knew what all of them had been up to lately.

But then in the back of her mind, she wondered when had been the last time she had seen Kristina lately and she couldn't even remember.

Then she looked up and saw him…fuzzy eyebrows and all…Coleman…god bless him for coming here and standing by her thick and thin…even though she didn't know him all that well. She smiled brightly as he approached her.

"Coleman…how nice to see you…"

He smiled back as his brows waggled.

"Hi doll face, before you get too excited, I've here to testify for the other side."

Her face fell.

"But…"

He waved a piece of paper in her face.

"They issued me a subpoena and I got no choice baby."

He winked at her before he went to sit on the bench on the opposite side of the corridor.

She sighed, realizing that life had suddenly become even darker in PC if she had to leave her life in the hands of people like Coleman.

* * *

Kristina stubbed out her cigarette as she headed into the courthouse…realizing that she really didn't want to be here today…the sun had shined beautifully, the road beckoned and Faith had breathlessly told her about the great sales in New York City. But her mother needed her and besides without prom being held, she had to find another reason to go shopping.

She saw the mysterious woman with the veil standing in the hallway and curiosity almost won out this time to go check her out but apprehension lingered inside her. Something familiar…about the woman tugged at her. Kristina guessed she couldn't be a witness because then she wouldn't be able allowed in the courtroom and she remembered having seen her that first day of trial.

But then shrugging, she figured that it was none of her business and besides since her mother was likely going to the guillotine soon, she would have to concentrate on figuring out what to do with her life. Where she would live after her mother was gone. She had thought about her father but he just drove her crazy with his mannerisms and paranoia. Sam was just too flakey and slovenly for her taste but then…on the other hand, if she moved in with big sis, she would be closer to Jason and he was just so damn hot.

She supposed then she would have to bring Molly with her…if she could even find her because she had to think really hard to the last time she had even seen her younger sister…it had been a while she guessed but then again, she had been really busy.

"Oh Kristina, there you are…."

She looked up and saw a harried Lulu walking towards her.

"Did you hear…I ran into Mac because he was looking for Johnny Wonderful for some silly thing again and he told me another girl was murdered last night…"

"Really," Kristina asked, idly, "Were her eyes…?"

Lulu nodded solemnly, her ringlets bouncing up and down.

"They ruined our senior year by canceling the prom and girls are still getting killed," Kristina said, "This is just so outrageous. I bet my mom had something to do with this."

Lulu's eyes looked like saucers.

"You mean she killed them?"

Kristina sighed, wondering how Lulu had gotten out of junior high.

"No…she put the Mayor up to canceling prom to keep me under her watchful eye," she said, "After all, she did shack up with him and had some torrid affair so that his wife left him."

Lulu sighed.

"Parents are just so complicated, aren't they?"

Lulu might not be all that bright but Kristina couldn't disagree with that.

"Are you sitting in on the trial," Lulu asked.

Kristina shrugged.

"Maybe…I don't know…it might be against the rules if I have to testify."

"Bummer…your own mother…though mine has been accused of murder herself…even when she was locked up in that loony bin."

Oh yeah, Kristina remembered, Laura had been catatonic for years now, only coming to life once in a while so the whole town could be inundated with the magic of Luke and Laura. Silly really, considering that Luke just creeped her out whenever he did wander into PC between his head trips. And then Luke of course had this weird thing going with her own mother, calling her Natasha all the time instead of by her real name. It would be almost cool if her mother actually had a cool name like that instead of some dorky moniker like Alexis.

Finally the bailiff opened the big doors and looked at the crowd solemnly.

"Court will soon begin," he said, "You may all come in and be seated."

The people waiting all looked at one another, as none of them were that much in a hurry. And the woman with the veil who sat apart from the rest, she just sat there and cackled.


	33. Chapter 33

The judge just looked at her and Alexis knew she thought lethal thoughts Like let's just skip the trial and head straight to the guillotine. Alexis just couldn't let the gauntlet she laid out remain unchallenged.

"But your honor…"

Julia stepped on her foot…real hard, enough so that tears sprung to Alexis' eyes.

"Shut up and let me do the talking,"Julia hissed, "if you want to survive past this day."

Alexis did gulp then because her twin just looked like this fierce amazon in her no nonsense lawyerly suit and that's what Alexis needed right now. Besides looking at her, she didn't see any signs of the kink that ruled Dianne's life and that was a plus factor as well.

The judge didn't looked moved by Alexis' tears at all.

"You don't shut your face right now, I'm going to impose the death penalty," she said, "There's been enough theatrics in this trial already."

Alexis blinked at that because she knew that PC was a bit off the beaten path of the civilized world and had its own rulebook but this was like something out of Wonderland. Madness had come to this courtroom and she felt ensnared in its deadly grip and none of the personas, real and imagined, living inside her head could set her free.

Julia gave her another sharp look and then smiled sweetly for the judge.

"You have to pardon my sister…she's very emotional right now," she said, "But I will not tolerate any further outbursts from her and if she continues, I will issue a request for the court to have a state mandated surgeon perform a lobotomy on her."

Alexis mouth dropped open and she just looked at her sister. But Julia's eyes didn't even blink and Alexis knew right then who the real Cassadine heiress between the two of them had proven to be. The woman next to her might look exactly like her but she was stone cold.

The judge looked over at Julia approvingly.

"I'd pay to see that," she said, "This woman has been a scourge on our justice system long enough."

Alexis just looked around the room in shock, as everything started to swirl around her, almost as if she were in the middle of a merry go round. Was she about to pass out again, she wondered idly. Where was Spinelli when she needed some happy grass?

Suddenly she looked towards the back of the courtroom and saw that really odd looking woman shrouded in a dark veil sitting in the back. She knew that no trial could really take place without at least one of these mysterious visitors…yet something looked familiar about this one. Was she sitting there in judgment of her?

She saw a bored looking Kristina sitting in front of the veiled woman and Brenda preening in the middle sitting next to a moody Sonny. She sighed, thinking that if her ex, the father of her middle daughter had to show her some kind of support, he could have done so more effectively by threatening the real killer into confessing…or buying off the judge to stop looking at her so contemptuously.

In the jury box, of course sat two people out to get her for having left Neddy at the altar a while back, his grandfather Edward Q and his daughter Brook Lyn who wore some garish makeup on her face.

Suddenly Edward stood up.

"As foreman of the latest jury trial I couldn't get out of, I wish to protest that this trial should have been finished days ago," he said, "I have a quarterly board meeting and my no good daughter Tracy is trying to launch another takeover bid."

Brook Lyn stood up too.

"Yeah right…and I have an audition for American Teen Idol…"

Bobbie Spencer stood up suddenly as well. Alexis looked at her puzzled, no one had seen Bobbie for years and she had no idea she had been picked for her jury.

"It's okay if this trial takes forever…because since Liz took over as head nurse at GH, I have nothing to do."

Alexis just sighed as once again hyperventilation threatened to overtake her. Why were all these people even mentioning their problems? What about her and the fact that she had been charged with killing some unknown person and the judge wanted to press the button behind the bench to open the trapdoor beneath her to feed her to the unknown carnivorous creature who wandered the catacombs.

And didn't this town know that not only wasn't Alexis evil, but she might be the only one who could save him from her evil tyrannical genius of a father (from which Alexis' brains surely came from) who had returned from deep freeze? Robin had served as an unwitting but amazingly static-free conduit for Mikos who had clearly been issuing a warning to everyone.

Kristina looked up to where some cheerleading chick named Amber sat next to her. Now the girl didn't really have an important role to play so surely she was toast. But until her untimely demise, Kristina felt dutybound to make small talk with her and besides, it was taking forever for the trial to resume.

"So did you hear about prom," Amber lamented.

Kristina nodded.

"The mayor or someone canceled it because of the murders but I know my mom had something to do with it…she just doesn't want me to have a life but wants me to stay a little girl."

Amber looked at her.

"Well, you were in elementary school just a while ago…"

Kristina didn't remember if she had been because she hadn't many memories of her life, only what had transpired recently. Clearly what had come before that didn't matter.

"Who's killing all of us," Amber said, feeling a chill, "and what has the killer been doing with those eyes?"

Kristina shrugged.

"I have no idea…maybe he eats them…or strings them in a necklace to wear."

After all, how would she know, she didn't have any of the answers. Besides Amber was tons smarter than most of the rest of the remaining students.

"Hey I have an idea…if we can't have an official island," she said, "Why don't we come up with one on our own? Just us students…forget the adults…it would be so cool."

Kristina pondered that, yeah it might work.

"We can even have it at your cousin's place," Amber said, "You know, the one who owns his very own island…it'd be perfect."

Kristina didn't know about that.

"I don't know if Nik would go for it…he's kind of in this brooding phase right now."

Amber didn't look discouraged…oh she just had to be next on the killer's list, Kristina thought, wondering if she should get up and find another seat.

"Won't hurt if you ask," Amber said, "We're only young once, time's fleeting and not having prom…that's just a horrible injustice if you ask me."

So Kristina reluctantly agreed to think about it. But seriously if Amber got bumped off, then the subject could be like, dropped so maybe she should just wait a while.

* * *

Liz had received her 10th Medal of Distinction for the surgery she had performed on someone's heart with just some cosmetic tools and afterward she ran into Jason who had lost Sam when they had passed her favorite boutique. Liz had watched the interaction carefully and bode her time. After all, she shared a kid with Jason after they had that memorable interlude on somebody's couch. So they were practically like, soulmates.

"Jas…what's up," she asked.

He blinked his eyes and looked at her.

"Liz…it's been a while."

She nodded.

"I know what Sam's like and she could whip my butt in a turf fight," she said, "You're sexier than all get out but I like my face."

Jas looked at her blankly, then sighed.

"She's thinking of being that we should run off and get married…after Alexis' trial."

Liz fluttered her eyelashes and moved closer to him.

"But where would that leave us," she said, "You remember how hot it's always been between us."

He nodded, because that much couldn't be denied but Sonny hadn't approved of Liz because he hadn't slept with her first. a turf fight," she said, "You're sexier than all get out but I like my face."

Jas looked at her blankly, then sighed.

"She's thinking of being that we should run off and get married…after Alexis' trial."

Liz fluttered her eyelashes and moved closer to him.

"But where would that leave us," she said, "You remember how hot it's always been between us."

He nodded, because that much couldn't be denied but Sonny hadn't approved of Liz because he hadn't slept with her first.

"Liz…you know we can't…it was great between us but Sam and I are living together now."

Liz just shrugged her thin shoulders.

"So…it's not going to work with her, Jas," she said, "She can't give you what I can…and I have this nice little flapper outfit that came in the mail that I'd love to show you."

Jason's face froze at that point as the vision of his Liz modeling in front of him threatened to consume him. But no, he couldn't betray Sam that way…not when she had returned to his sphere again.

"Can't you at least take me to Sonny and Brenda's wedding," she cajoled, "Just make up some excuse for Sam…"

"But she's in the boutique right now buying her dress that she'll be wearing."

Liz just gazed into his eyes.

"I've got a closet filled with dresses…some sheer…some short…all of them for you Jas…"

The siren sound of her voice reached him finally and he succumbed to her charms and pulled her into his he-man embrace and within the split of a second, it was as if time had rewound and they had never been apart.

At that moment, Sam came sauntering out of the boutique with her purchases and saw them…and then something deep inside of her exploded.


	34. Chapter 34

Mac looked solemnly at the photos of the young girls posted on the wall of the police station. All beautiful students at PC High who were brutally snatched away from the world of the living before their time, all of them were missing their eyes and thus the windows into their innocent souls. What kind of killer would do such a thing, had yet another monster been unleashed on their quiet little town?

He had always been a man on a mission to make the world a safer place for the good representatives of humanity. His older brother, Robert had been one who had been happiest living in the shadows, playing an assortment of characters as needed while working for the WSB where he had met his wife, Anna and had fathered Robin, a child that neither had actually raised, instead leaving her care to others including him. But then Mac had collecting foundling children like stray puppies left by the irresponsible women who wandered in and out of his life in between trysts with their equally flaky male counterparts.

He had admired Robert from a distance for so many years but he had outgrown that infatuation when he realized his brother had been like a matchup between James Bond and Peter Pan.

They had their rows which Mac had rehearsed for hours even days ahead of time when he would confront his brother on his weaknesses as a man and a father. But when the two of them met, Mac had always felt as if he were standing in a shadow larger than himself and Robert did all the talking.

But no more…no…by solving this string of serial murders, it would be Mac not Robert who would be making a name for himself, who would be anointed the hero of PC. And Robin would realize once and for all who had been the real father to her. However, he stood here now scratching his head at the photos on the wall…because only a very experienced and seasoned maniacal killer could have perpetrated such a wave of terror and violence. He had ran the database looking for a list of prospective suspects…including some that had escaped from either the Sunnybrook Institution for the Criminally Insane or the PC penitentiary. But he had drawn a blank…it was this curious signature to the crime…the surgical removal of the victims' eyes…so precise with no room for error that both seemed familiar even as it confounded him.

It had to be someone who had been a surgeon which naturally didn't eliminate many suspects in PC, the epicenter for one of the most renowned medical institutions in the country.

Dante walked in the room decked out with his badge and his gun, now as one of PC's greatest cops. He looked at Mac, wishing again that this great man could have been his father…rather than the Mumbling Mafia Man. But fate had been cruel to him most of his life giving him a mother who slept around with men old enough to be…his younger brothers. Unsavory types like this Johnny Wonderful who just reeked of a sleazy con artist roping susceptible women like the wondrous Lulu Spencer. Now there was a doll face if he had ever seen one. Sweet, kind, but clearly not a good judge of guys if she was shacking up with that loser instead of a stud like him. But then maybe the blonde was into bad boys…like most of her gender. He had tried to be bad himself, very, very bad, certainly he had the double dose of genes but somehow…maybe he had been adopted after all because he was just too damn sweet. Sonny had certainly looked at him as if that had been the case, how could he have been so cursed to have the worst excuse of a man for his father?

"So how's the case going," Dante asked, "Any suspects."

Mac sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"None…so far…a more nefarious killer PC has never seen," he said, "There's not much in the way of clues left behind."

Dante sauntered by the board that had been filled with photographs of the crime scene, the poor unfortunate young girls in both life and death and…a footprint?

"What's this…was it taken from one of the crime scenes?"

Mac nodded.

"It's not from any of the dead girls…so there's a possibility that the killer left it."

Dante frowned.

"It's not very large is it," he said, "So the killer…"

"Shoe size is a poor indicator of overall size as it is for other things," Mac said, "So it doesn't tell us much."

Dante studied it further.

"It indicates that it might belong to a female…"

Mac shrugged, not thinking that far. In reality, it had taken him quite a few tries to even make it into the PC police academy let alone function as a commissioner. He just wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.

Then the door flew open and this older woman wearing a lot of perfume and a fur coat stormed right in the room.

"Tracy…what are you doing here?"

She snorted, throwing her purse on a nearby chair.

"It's my father…how do I have him declared legally insane?"

Mac sighed.

"Tracy we've been through this…Ed's in control of all his faculties…in fact he's one of the sharpest tools in the shed…he could work for me."

Tracy shook her head.

"Mac you're not being very helpful to me…and you know how much that I dislike…that. Now I need your help…I'm trying to seize the reins of what's left of ELQ which isn't much and he's starting to act crazy again…"

"Your father is currently serving on a jury in a very important murder trial…"

Tracy nodded dismissively.

"Oh that…I say she did it…Alexis is the murdering queen of PC…I'm a rank amateur next to that woman."

Mac looked uneasy.

"Tracy should you really be telling me this," he said, "I'm a cop."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Barely…my father bought you a spot in the academy…because he needed a pawn in the PC Department…which he owns by the way…"

Mac didn't know that, hadn't gotten the memo but it wouldn't surprise him considering the scope that Edward exercised for years over the town.

"That might be or not…but I have some serious crimes to solve…including these murders of the high school students."

Tracy considered that.

"Oh yes…well does Alexis have an alibi?"

Matt shook his head.

"It's not her…because I know her."

Tracy chuckled.

"Because you and she make goo goo eyes at each other twice a year…and throw some big words around that you think no one else understands?"

"No…because she had no reason to kill these young girls…which is much different than her other…murders."

Tracy shrugged.

"Does she need a reason," she said, "Besides it could be one of the alternate personalities living in some very cramped space inside her head."

Mac hadn't thought about that and she could be right…but he just didn't want to ruin his day thinking about it.

The thought that Alexis could have a hand in this murderous spree became too much to bear…not to mention the crimp it would put in the sex life he planned to have with her…oh five years down the road, he was an optimist after all.

* * *

Alexis sighed out in the hallway, believing the morning spent in the courtroom at her murder trial had been absolutely brutal. This was a witch trial, a kangaroo court and her latest attorney hadn't been much help. Mayor what's his name had actually shown up to testify against her calling her PC's very own black widow who had seduced him away from his unwitting wife. Alexis had wanted to jump out of her chair and call him a liar but Julia kicked her in the shin under the table and hissed to her that if she did that, she'd end up riding the chair electric by the end of the day.

Alexis so wanted to fire her.

The judge dismissed them all early because the jury threatened to mutiny if it didn't get a break and there was that protest that had to be broken up at City Hall involving the cancellation of prom. Deputies had rushed the courtroom saying that Mayor what's his face and a few other select PC big shots were being burned in effigy. Alexis clapped beneath the table so glad that wasn't happening to her for a change.

Edward led the charge of jurors to the door rushing to stop Tracy's latest attempted takeover. Brook Lyn rushed off to catch the last ferry to Spoon Island to spend some time with Nikolas in his coffin. Bobbie disappeared and everyone forgot her again.

Alexis looked out into the audience for Kristina and couldn't find her. Oh my god, had Kristina joined the mob of students who were rioting at City Hall right now over some stupid prom? If that were the case, then the jurors when they returned tomorrow would certainly convict her…as a bad mother. She had to find her, pull her aside and talk this craziness out of her.

And she also had to ask her where she had left Molly because she couldn't remember.

She hurried out into the lobby and saw Jason pressing Sam against a wall, sealing his mouth over hers for a kiss. Clearly they had been like that for a while.

"Sam…Jason…alright focus…"

Sam opened her eyes and looked at her mother.

"We're kind of busy right now," she said, "We've been busy running around all day…hunting down killers…searching for clues…shopping…and we were at the catacombs and heard some disemboweled voices…"

Alexis sighed, none of that was important right now…she had to stop her middle daughter from jeopardizing her murder trial…before it was too late. But if she showed up…the angry mob might burn her for real. Alexis had never really been popular with the teen set…not that she knew why.

"Sam…please I need your attention right now," Alexis said, "Your sister, Kristina might be leading a riot right now."

Sam shrugged.

"Good for her…PC needs a good kick in the pants," she said, "Speaking of which, I bought this pair of hot looking stretch pants at this boutique…"

Jason blinked and grunted.

"Oh yeah Jas, you play me right and I'll model them for you back at the loft."

Alexis just rolled her eyes at this life she had spawned without remembering it. Where had she gone so wrong with two of her own daughters? Thank goodness for sweet little Molly who she would find soon…and take her out for some girly time, like getting their hair done and manicures, eating hot fudge sundaes and pushing her on the swings at the park.

Or maybe dialing up Mac to come with, so he could take care of her children for her so she could deal with the really important things in her messed up life….she sighed, that sounded like a plan.

So she left the courthouse, leaving Sam and Jas and their sordid little interlude behind.


	35. Chapter 35

Johnny Wonderful shot a great game of pool…right up to the day some sore loser broke a cue over his noggin. That had left him with a sore head not to mention a temporary case of amnesia that had never gone completely away. But he had never given up hustling a game of Nine Ball whenever he could find one…usually in Coleman's bar. Most of PC had figured him to be a pretty boy of little substance but nothing could be further away from the truth. Johnny Wonderful if not exactly street tough had grown up…well in the suburbs. He had been beaten up over his lunch money at the Catholic Academy and had to hire another bigger kid to watch his back…and then nuns terrified him to this day as memories filled his mind of their strict demeanor in the classroom.

He still woke up in a cold sweat after reliving the same nightmare of when he had froze during the speech he had been assigned by Sr. Hilda to give to his debate class, the rap of the ruler over his knuckles to stop him from sending a mash note to Becky Lou…which she then read in front of the whole class.

Yes, Johnny Wonderful had led a traumatic life filled with humiliation and pain, which inspired his own creation of music. Johnny Wonderful had always wanted to be a musician. He had tried different forms from country western when he had tried to croon ballads to rock and roll to rap, none of them that successfully.

That was why he had invited Brook Lyn to his apartment to help him figure out how to make it as a musician. After all she could sing like a bird even though no one could agree upon what species and Lois had been a stage mother to end them all, with her custom decorated talons and her offbeat attitude that had driven many men to drink and had charmed a guy named Ned who last heard had been rowing a boat around Spoon Island during a storm and had never been seen again.

Yes, she had embraced the gothic lifestyle, dressed in black all the time and had been hanging around the Dark Prince lately. But she had the tools that Johnny Wonderful needed to become an overnight musical sensation and when that happened, Lulu, the most awesome chick would be so proud of him, she didn't need to know what it took for him to get there.

But first they had to settle on some terms of business…and ouch, had the minx Brook Lynn just nibbled on his earlobe?

"You like that baby," she crooned, "I do too…cause you're kind of hot…in an aching to be bad boy kind of way."

A pang of guilt struck at Johnny Wonderful just then. He and Lulu at the ice cream parlor over some cream sodas had promised to be true to one another…which meant…well this was just business and had nothing to do with pleasure…ah…not mostly. It was just about business…he wanted the chance to slip a demo of his best music to the hottest record label that had even heard of PC for a listen and Brook Lynn said she had an inside voice.

She blew softly into his ear and he inhaled the scent of chewing gum.

"Brook Lynn, about that meeting with the big shot…"

She cooed softly back at him.

"I'm working on it…you trust me don't you?"

Well, not really, Johnny Wonderful thought but he was desperate for his big break as he wasn't getting any younger. The couch creaked beneath their weight.

"I just…you know I want to be a big star and I know this demo could really do it."

"Sure…sure baby…"

She wrapped her arms around him. But Johnny's attention had focused on the bedroom door which had opened up and he saw Liz with a feather duster and dressed in her French maid costume. Damn, he thought, he had forgotten it was cleaning day but looked at the feathers longingly. They felt so great over…looked so great when cleaning the antique furniture.

Liz looked over at Brook Lynn and him and smiled.

"I didn't know you were having…guests."

Brook Lynn just blinked her heavily mascara coated eyes at Liz.

"And I didn't know the hired help would show up," she said, not happily.

Liz glared, but the smile never left her face.

"I thought I left you with Niklos," she said, "You know he can't be left alone…not in this state."

Brook Lynn shrugged.

"I got bored…all he does is lie in the coffin and brood…it's not all that exciting after the edge wears off."

Liz put down her duster and folded her thin arms.

"It's all part of his psyche," she explained, "He can't help who his parents are…the whole family's insane."

"No argument from me there," Brook Lynn said, "I'm on the jury you know in Alexis' latest murder trial."

Liz shook her head.

"Terrible isn't it," she said, "They should lock that woman up after what she did to Ricky."

"What about my Dad…no one's seen him and it's been a while…I might have to report him missing soon."

"Bummer…"

Johnny Wonderful watched the two women interact and wondered why they weren't focused on him.

"Brook Lynn…Liz…"

The two women stared at him blankly.

"What Johnny Wonderful…," Liz said, "I finished cleaning the bedrooms, changed the sheets…"

She stuck a finger in her mouth, sucked it tantalizingly and waved it.

"And I checked for dust…"

He felt himself weaken because even though Liz was a bit skinny and he found her savior complex a little intimidating, he found himself inexplicably drawn to her like a drug. Though he noticed something different…she was…

"Liz are you pregnant?"

She nodded nonchalantly.

"Yeah…it happens…a lot."

Trepidation filled him at that moment. Had it been…had he just shot his future with Lulu to Hell?

"Is it?"

She shook her curly haired head.

"Nah…At least I don't think so…I'm hoping it's Jax's…no offense…"

"None taken," he said clearly relieved.

Brook Lynn eyed Liz carefully.

"What do you mean you hope…Did you go out and seduce Jax you tramp?"

Liz shrugged with a smile.

"He hired me as his personal maid a while back," she said, "and he likes to be up close and personal in his cleaning too."

Brook Lynn shook her head.

"Oh when his wife finds out, she'll kick your skinny ass to the catacombs and then she'll bury you alive."

Liz put a finger to her lips.

"That's why she can't ever know…I'm not suicidal after all…I saw what she just did to Vampira on the news."

All of them did and took the lesson home because no one ever messed with Carly after she started wearing really big hair.

"Jax is really cute," Liz mused, "but he's got this thing…this weird thing…for feet…he wouldn't leave mine alone…"

"Ooh gross," Brook Lynn said, "That's crazy…"

Liz nodded.

"Yeah it was…but it was kind of endearing in a kinky kind of way…I hope he doesn't pass it along to the baby though."

Brook Lynn agreed, that would be just too weird. Johnny Wonderful just looked at both of them thinking everything would be fine as long as Lulu never found out…at least not until after he had taken the world by storm with his musical talent.

Part of that was due to the deep affection he held for the blond girl with the poodle skirt but that wasn't all of it. The rest came down to pure survival.

Because when it came to going postal on a guy, he had this feeling that Lulu could even put her cousin Carly to shame and he didn't want to find out the hard way.

* * *

Dianne lit her cigarette and looked over at Max who had passed out next to her, a smile on his face. They had been hooked up in this torrid affair for nearly two months now and that was a record for her. Dianne was the love and leave them type of girl usually after tying them up. But something about Max…something beyond his muscular physique honed by his demanding career as Sonny's bodyguard and it wasn't just that he was fantastic in between the sheets though that did help. No, he was that irresistible combination of both manly toughness and sweetly vulnerability like after when they plastered each other with strawberry preserves, he had licked them gently off of the nape of her neck. She could get used to that…but then it hit her like a sledge hammer…no she couldn't…because that would mean at some point making some sort of commitment and the word just chilled her to the bone. Her best fremeny Alexis had warned her about this happening…that she would wind up falling crazily in love with the man that had allowed her to use her new fuzzy handcuffs on him first. And Alexis was after all, the expert on crazy.

She sighed as she looked at him and got out of bed, going to her computer. Damn, another signal had come in from her contact which meant she had to go into the cone of solitude to talk to him properly. When she had been checking out the real estate in PC after her arrival, she had asked the agent for this feature and the woman hadn't even blinked an eyelash bringing her to this cute little pad. All she had to do was push a secret button under the wet bar and voila, the wall opened to show the secret room with all the gadgets which sparkled with lights when she flipped another switch and the room came to life. She had to enter a secret password and she was set.

To give that loser of a washed out WSB agent her piece of mind.

"Scorpio is that you…why can't you just die for real," she groaned.

"Nice to hear from you too…no, the news of my death was as the quote goes, premature."

She sighed, pouring herself some more Scotch.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you sound like Jerry," she said, "you know Alexis is obsessed with that weasel again."

"We've got worse problems than that," Scorpio said, "The Balkin's been spotted in the vicinity of the waterfront again."

She sighed with great exasperation.

"Who is he…why all the mystery?"

A silence greeted her and she didn't know if he would answer.

"We…don't know…we thought it was…never mind about that…he's dead…but he's in PC and he's got deadly plans…of which we…don't know."

"Sounds like you don't know much of anything," she said, "How little things have changed."

He chuckled.

"Was it really that bad between us…sweetness?"

"Nothing about you…us was what I'd call sweet," she said, "When you left me handcuffed in that hotel room in Monaco, I swore I would kill you a thousand times."

"Come on…it was the best time you ever had standing up."

"Oh…I don't know about that," she said, looking back at a sleeping Max, "Why don't you just go take this trip down memory lane by yourself?"

He paused.

"I can't…it's time for us to be activated…Nikita…"

Her eyes blinked…and warmth filled her from another time…when she and a handsome rogue of a spy and a vat of warm honey…never mind…except to say they had been quite the team.

"Where shall we meet," she said breathlessly.

"How about at the docks…I'll be the one who actually looks like I belong there…"

She promised she would be there, and went to the closet to pull out her spy uniform, including the belt which held all her gadgets including of course, handcuffs, She looked over at Max…a bit longingly…and blew him a kiss with her fingers, promising she'd be back.

Because work came first, of course before play and after all, someone had to save PC from the world or the other way around.


	36. Chapter 36

Alexis listened to the phone ringing on Diane's end but no pick up, how could her former lawyer keep ignoring her like this? Didn't she know how badly Alexis needed her to keep from succumbing to the temptation to hunt Jerry down and hook up with him in the most dangerously sinful way again?

She had spent time with some Scotch at Coleman's bar lamenting over the fact that she had waited most of her life to find a man who would ignite her libido and leave her feeling all turned inside out with just a sultry glance. All of her life she had stuck with men who were nice…so safe and so easy to control…like Nedsy for example. Whatever had happened to him…Alexis couldn't quite recall…the rumors…the stories which wafted along the PC gossip trail…oh never mind, it didn't matter anyway, nothing did in comparison to the trials and tribulations that had just ensnared her in their evil web. Most of PC looked at her as if she were this vile creature…a self-centered, non repentant murderess who was working her way through the town's population. A wigged out member of the poisonous tree that was named Cassadine.

Nothing could be further from the truth, she knew. She was the nicest, kindest and most self-sacrificing person she had ever met. Just look at her, she had three daughters all of them from different fathers…two of them related in other ways besides just through her. They were all well fed, well groomed, well except for Sam's slovenly look since hooking up with Sonny's former henchman, Jason. But she was working with her eldest daughter, that is she would be if she stopped having wanton sex with her mother's men. But moving on to Kristina…well she was just going through the pits and perils and incessant mood fluctuations of her teenaged years…which was strange because Alexis still saw her as her little girl...okay then so she wasn't a perfect princess but then what about Molly?

Where was Molly anyway? Alexis tried to remember the last time she had seen her youngest spawn but…never mind, she'd turn up at some point…moving on to more important topics…like securing her own freedom. The rest would just have to take care of itself like it always did. After all, Alexis considered herself the best mother in PC…after all she wasn't crazy like Carly who had somehow ensnared Alexis' favorite husband in her snare…nor was she like that vagabond Felicia who had apparently remembered having kids and had wandered back to PC driving Mac crazy.

Alexis gave up on Dianne figuring she'd better find a more reliable best friend and fast…maybe she could find one on the jury…but as long as Edward kept the control of it in his ironclad grip…not much hope there.

Kristina looked at her mom, gripping the cell phone as if it were her lifeline and thought, how pathetic. How could this needy, self-serving creature be her mother? Kristina had no idea…it must have been a baby swap of some sort that had landed her in the wrong crib…then she wondered who would be her real mother then. It had to be someone else, anyone else because people swapped babies like they swapped DNA tests…and when Bobbie had reappeared out of nowhere that mattered to land on her mother's jury, just look at the car she had been driving…clearly she had fallen into some huge windfall.

Kristina had fantasies of having someone cool as her mother…someone like Olivia who despite having a grown son, her half brother with Sonny, she still dressed to the nines, hung out at all the cool places and could party up a storm. She could just see her and Olivia in matching outfits sitting at the PC beauty salon getting their manicures, pedicures and waxes done. Then going out on a shopping spree in a really fancy sport car. She hadn't confided her fantasies with anyone…not even Faith, her fairy godmother. But no matter how much she wished, how many times she clicked the heels of her new slippers, she opened her eyes and there stood…Alexis still hanging onto her cell phone or her Scotch…still pathetic as ever. She had stopped going to PC High with all the dorks partly because her being Alexis' daughter outweighed all the coolness points she earned from being Sonny's little princess, leaving her with a net result of being a pariah.

But who had time for school anyway…when she had all these adventures with Faith…and she still had this thing for Jas who for some reason had been drawn to skanky Sam who couldn't even get her top and bottom to match when she had finally rolled out of bed and wandered into the kitchen. She had crashed at Alexis' late last night because Jas all of a sudden had been called away for a secret assignment and he wouldn't tell her one damn thing about where he would be going and when he returned.

So they got into a fight and she stomped off...But not before lifting another credit card from his pocket and palming it triumphantly before stuffing it in her bra. There was a 50 percent sale at the leather and lace boutique that she favored. With Jas away, that left plenty of time for her to accessorize her wardrobe.

Alexis saw her two eldest daughters staring at her while she clutched the phone.

"You're looking at me like something's the matter…well nothing's the matter…not really..well except for the fact that the whole town wants to execute me…Edward and Ned's daughter just look like they want to skip the trial and get right to it…oh what am I going to do?"

Neither of them knew what to say so she just rattled on some more.

"And I just can't stop thinking about him…you know Jerry, remember him…well he's just the hottest guy who ever burned me to a crisp with a glance…and you know because I'm so busy taking care of my girls, I've had to put certain other parts of me…on ice…"

Sam just grimaced. Why did her mother want to shack up with that disgusting creep, anyway? Kristina just couldn't understand why her mother was talking about her lack of a sex life to them in the first place…how gauche….not.

Alexis just sighed and wrung her hands.

"Girls, I'm so sorry about breakfast…I'm just so overwrought…why don't you go find something to cook up for us?"

Sam just sighed, never having learned that particular skill…and Kristina just folded her arms thinking how so un cool it was to have her as a mother...no wonder no one liked her at PC High.

"Kristina…I don't have all day…I have to get my hair done…because Julia said that my hair style alone could get me convicted."

Kristina just sighed, looking for a frying pan she wished she could use to hit her mother on the head…then a chill filled her…she had just had a murderous thought…did this mean…was she really her mother's daughter after all?

God…she hoped not.

* * *

Robin's lip trembled slightly as she sat at the table where an elegant and lacy doily type table cloth had been spread, and on top of that was the finest china including a pot of herbal tea. She had even collected some flowers from the waterfront to place in a vase filled with water as a centerpiece.

All this she had done even as she slaved to make a perfect omelet, plus toast with marmalade on the side the way her daddy always liked it.

But her father had once again left a message on her cell telling her he would once again be a no show, having to like usual take a rain check on their time spent together. Rage threatened to overcome her usually tranquil self but she stifled it down into the recesses where it threatened to erupt…and she had closed her eyes and started chanting the mantra about how the world was filled with peace and joy, peace and joy, yes…she felt herself start to settle down…feeling a little bit better.

Scorpio had mentioned something about a mission that he had been called to perform which is why he had to cancel all his plans. She thought about calling him back but knew he wouldn't pick up. She accepted this as part and parcel of the relationship they had always shared…at least she saw him occasionally…her mother, Anna was her real name wasn't it…she hardly ever even heard from. But it didn't matter because Robin lived in a town of surrogate fathers. Mac, who was Scorpio's brother had been the mainstay in her life…even as he had two other strays to raise in Maxine and Georgia. Although Georgia's life had been brutally snuffed out like a beautiful candle that shone no more…though when the lighting was right and the sounds fell silent around her for just a moment…a piece of time's generosity…she could just about see her dead friend.

Some might say it was her imagination but she knew Georgia's benevolent spirit watched over the town and if she could be reached…her spirit channeled into a conduit for communicating, maybe she could prove to be the town savior in death that she had strived to be in real life. Georgia's own father, Frisco had been an irresponsible cad caught up in the same Peter Pan complex that gripped her own father and when it came to propagating, he had been like that dude, Johnny Appleseed. So she and Georgia had bonded over root beer floats and sinfully delicious cupcakes over their wayward parents.

When Felicia had wandered back into town after one of her trips, she hadn't even known that sweet little Georgia had passed on…and rumor was that she had simply said, bummer and then had gone to look for Spinelli for some happy grass. Robin frowned when she wondered what Mac, the town's police commissioner, would have to say about that. Mac was such a good man, a paragon of virtue in a town that had none but what he needed was a good honest woman and unfortunately, he hadn't had much luck.

But now that he and Alexis had crossed paths and exchanged meaningful looks and flirtatious banter every once in a while, she thought his luck might change. Because though most of the town believed Alexis to be the evil spawn of Mikos and some dead opera singer, she saw the goodness within her because Robin had that amazing gift.

Plus she had the magical decoder ring that Casey had given her before the beam of light had sucked him back into his spaceship. Now most of the town's folk had shaken their hands and wondered who had slipped Robin some acid for her to come up with such a fantastic story but Robin knew deepest in her heart that Casey had been real.

"I do believe in aliens," she had said every night back then clicking her heels.

And even years later, she still believed…She felt so, so, sad right now at her father failing to show up yet again…and yes, she needed to find a way to turn her frown upside down and be her perky self…but she just needed a moment…so she put her head down on her arms and her shoulders shook.

And outside, the sun slid behind a cloud as someone stood watching…and waiting…


	37. Chapter 37

The nurses' ball was in full swing at Coleman's night club by the time that Queen Bee Brenda arrived, with her entourage. Sonny still hadn't proposed to her yet…and the times that he mumbled something about them getting hitched after rolling off of her in the sack just didn't count.

Brenda had been waiting her whole life for her prince to come before her on bended knee with a jawbreaker of a ring in his hand to propose for her hand in marriage. And she really had believed for oh like the third time she had dropped back in PC that this time would be the charm with Sonny. But until he was really serious and did the job right, she was so over him. Besides it's not like he was really all that hot anyway, being a short man with a receding hairline who she would see pointing his finger at his reflection in the mirror before mumbling his mantra, you are dead to me.

No Sonny, they're only dead in your deluded mind…there had been a time when he had stood there a man of formidable power and uttered those same words and it had made her so hot…sizzling so much so that if he didn't jump her right then and there, she would burn to a crisp, simply from the timbre of his voice and the piercing nature of his eyes. But the booze and prescription pills hadn't been kind to her one-time prince and his eyes were bloodshot now and the crows feet just grossed her out…hadn't he ever tried out that wonderful invention Botox? She had already slipped some blue pills into his drink that were of that other wondrous invention…

He had caught her doing it once while they dined out on the terrace of his Mediterranean style summer house.

"Hey…what's that?"

She just smiled at him beguilingly.

"They're called Va-Voom my handsome stud…they'll make you feel…more pleasure."

He seemed to buy it and returned to dining on his antipasto. She had breathed some relief at that point because if she had told him the truth that she had spiked his drink with Viagra, he'd probably storm off in a huff and if he didn't look where he was going, he might totter off the terrace into the piranha filled moat below.

But anyway enough about Sonny, this was about Brenda who had spent a morning at the day spa getting pampered, manicured, pedicured and waxed again. She had always worn the hottest outfits and this gorgeous scarlet number split nearly to her hip and with her six inch stilettos, no she couldn't be seen with Sonny tonight. But she gazed around the room and saw the choices of cuisine….Jax…the surfer guy with the amazing endurance and the yen for small feet and pale pink toe polish. Jason, or what she could see of him because that trailer trash troll up Sam was mashing against him again with his stylish hair, James Dean jacket and blank stare…which made every woman in PC want to lift her dress. Dante…she did him already and harbored some secret involving him that was so much so, she didn't even have a clue what it was about…but he was hot in the sack and in the shower and in the changing room at Paula's boutique…except for the time she had caught him with that relentless cougar.

She searched and saw Michael…all that anger…no…he wasn't biologically related to Sonny. …Luke, too edgy and dangerous even for her tastes and though he pined for Laura five days a year he was gone most of the time and…wait was he really canoodling with that old bag Tracy? He needed to be careful she didn't stick arsenic in his food and call it Spanish fly. Alan…now he was not bad…wait a minute, wasn't he supposed to be dead?

But her eyes settled again on the woolly coat, Coleman with his bushy brows and hot mustache and beard. She knew his chest was a shag carpet she could run her nails through as they cavorted together…she sighed eying the pool table which was being wasted for the unofficially official nurses' ball pool tournament.

All this was being done to raise money for some charity…she couldn't remember which one after all she hadn't been around much and the ball had mysteriously gone underground for a while once the undead had taken it over before their annihilation. She put a smile on her face after refreshing her lipstick, scarlet of course to match her dress and her yen for sin…if she had been Eve in the Garden of Eve, Coleman would have been her…apple.

His eyes blinked from behind the bar.

"Brenda…."

She hopped over the bar with ease, amazing considering the tightness of her dress.

"What are you doing doll face?"

She drew a talon over his face, without drawing blood.

"I'm interested in ripping off your clothes and burying myself in you Coleman…all of you…right here, right now…can you dig that?"

Coleman's eyes widened. He liked spontaneity like the rest of his gender but this chick just exuded danger. After all her latest man Sonny was scheduled to pop in later that evening and if he saw the two of them together…not that he was scared of the Mafioso but he had just gotten his only suit dry cleaned.

"Brenda…what's come over you?"

She purred, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Oh Coleman darling, can't you see, I ache for a man like you?"

"But what about…"

She did the trick with the talon thing only it trailed down his throat, tickling the skin over his jugular.

"Oh I'm not bad, I'm just written that way…this time…but being the clueless ___ingénue_ just got so old after five minutes…but Coleman I want you…now…."

He hesitated.

"You're not just trying to make him jealous are you?"

She arched a carefully trimmed brow.

"What do you think…and what do you care…after I'm through pleasuring you, none of this will matter…"

Coleman sighed, when she put it that way…what man even one considered to be part beast was immune to that?

* * *

Alexis grumbled as he walked into Coleman's club. Simply being seen here might be not be damaging to her criminal defense at her murder trial but it would kill her rep as a dignified and famous attorney. That farce had still been going on despite the fact that she didn't know who she killed or allegedly killed. And it's not like she was going to pull out her handy list of dead bodies to help the prosecution hang her from the public square.

But anyway, Julia had tried to put her foot down and said she had to go to this charity ball and drop a wad of cash to make it look like she was a kind and generous human being rather than a remorseless serial killer. She had been confused when she had sold the Cassadine diamond necklace which was cursed anyway to pay for a ticket because she didn't know or even remember what the charity had been. No one else seemed to know either and as she walked into the club past the shrine of the dead nurses hall of fame which included Jesse, Amy, Diane and some psycho who had slashed up half the doctors during a spree…and a couple who in their photos looked awfully pale to be human and were those urns truly holding their ashes? But then PC had always been schizoid in that it existed amid an uneasy alliance between lightness and darkness, the living and the dead and all those caught in between both world.

But Alexis felt angry as she noshed near the refreshment table. She had checked on her daughters before leaving and none of them were at home…except when she had knocked on Molly's bedroom door, she had heard her youngest princess singing a song. She still had been unnerved about the condition of her dolls and her tendency to talk to someone she called Natasha….which just had to be the most amazing coincidence because no one but Luke ever uttered that hated moniker near her…especially amid the whispers of the deceased in her wake. She had also called Diane and had gotten an irate Max who had just freed himself from being chained with fuzzy cuffs in the basement chamber who told her that Diane had taken off quickly and without any reason why.

How like her so-called best friend and law partner to just bail on her when she needed her…and how like the nurses holding a ball and picking anything but her legal defense as the appropriate charity. She needed funds desperately to avoid the guillotine more than anyone possibly could. Drinking up some scotch with her brie, she glanced over to where Jason and Sam were mauling each other in the corner. Lulu was beaming in front of Johnny Wonderful who Alexis knew as a fact because she had read it in the courthouse bathroom was at least three-timing her. She looked at Lulu who was a babe compared to the woman Johnny Wonderful usually favored. He had even approached her one time asking her to dress up in some stupid costume to come and clean his bedroom. As if she a regally trained attorney and the smartest, most professional woman in PC would ever stoop to wearing such a skimpy dress and do that…when her cad of an ex-husband Ric had asked her to do it, she had turned him down flat.

Now if Jerry…she hyperventilated at the thought of his tongue caressing her earlobe as he pressed his body intimately against her…she nearly had to sit down she was so overcome with dangerous thoughts about a very dangerous man. What if he showed up…how would she…what if they played the right music, the lights reflected off the disco ball just right…would she…could she resist him or would they wind up doing some very dirty dancing across the floor? She closed her eyes, no Alexis, you can't…the paparazzi are everywhere…see that bush wiggling over there, oh wait that was Paula and Patrick…but if they saw her clinched with Jerry in some compromising if very pleasurable position…her life would be ruined and it would be…much shorter.

Robin walked up to her still dressed in her surgical scrubs.

"I came right after I assisted Liz in doing an intricate heart transplant with some pliers and a blow torch."

Alexis nodded, still lost in her throes of a panic attack at the thought of a mob of PC's most vindictive screaming for her execution.

"Alexis…isn't this a wonderful party…all this giving and caring..and the pretty decorations…"

Alexis wondered if she and Robin were in the same party or even the same dimension.

"You know I don't even know what charity this is for…but it must be something really very nice…"

Then the room darkened, to show the glittering embers of the disco ball moving across the ceiling and the entire room fell into a hush.

"This must be the entertainment…," Alexis said, vaguely remembering that part of the program.

Alan Q dressed in a snazzy Jitterbug suit tested the mike…and he was surrounded by some young woman including Brook Lynn in very short skirts…

As the music strummed up, Alexis just watched the stage and decided this would be a very long night.

* * *

Kristina and Muffy had been hitting the spiked punch bowl pretty hard and they had been out smoking cigarettes in the alley in back of Coleman's club.

"That party is so…lame…," Muffy said, after taking a drag, "I mean Coleman's hot if you like old hairy men and watching a bunch of nurses sing and dance…isn't my thing."

"Yeah I know…and they won't even tell us what this stupid party is for," Kristina said, "I wish I could just leave."

Muffy jumped off the wall.

"Well I am…I'm going to meet some hot guy at the Water Front and have some steamy sex…but we'll get together and talk about having our own prom on Spoon Island."

Kristina had her doubts about whether or not her cousin Nikolas would go for it but she looked forward to having the prom that the powers that be including her own mother had stolen from them. She watched as Muffy waved goodbye and disappeared into a fog bank that had just appeared in front of them in the alley.

Muffy hummed in between puffs of her cigarette and taking sips from a flask of whisky she pulled out of her purse so lost in her own world that she didn't notice the footsteps of the stalker behind her.

"Damn I left them at home…well Rod had better have some…"

She fumbled more in her purse hoping to find what she was looking for, not seeing the shadow which loomed over her, not hearing the whoosh in the air around her nor the silvery blade that reflected the light of the nearly full moon…until it was too late.

The killer stood over the prone body of what once had been Muffy...and watched the blood pooling around her, cackling to themselves before crouching over to get some what she needed to take with them to add to the growing collection…


	38. Chapter 38

Another update, sorry it's been a while. Been really busy...

* * *

Alexis woke up sprawled across what felt like…oh my god…was it, no it couldn't be…it was the pool table at Coleman's night club. Oh no…she hopped off the table as quickly as she could because after all you never could tell where it had been or more accurately who had lain on top of it doing unspeakable things to someone else.

Now Alexis had her torrid interludes with PC men about every decade or so with a long spell of arid dryness in between but she had a staunch set of morals, dos and don'ts of what she would and would not engage in with whatever bad guy she had hooked up with.

And no, fornicating on a pool table in a tawdry club wasn't on the list of things to do with well let's see, Sonny, Ned, Jax, Ric or even Jerry… wait a minute, there was a man on that list she hadn't had sex with wasn't there? In Alexis' world, there were two kind of men that existed which were worth noticing. The group she had sex with but didn't marry and the ones she married but wore the old chastity belt.

Oh wait, then there was Ric…but given that he had made it a point to screw around on her where she couldn't avoid noticing the writhing lumps in her bed or on her living room rug, he had become an unmentionable.

Even before he had conveniently vanished…which she knew absolutely nothing about of course…so people should stop looking at her like that whenever his name came up in conversation when someone, say Lulu, stepped out of their lives for a couple of seconds to say, "Hey, when was the last time anyone saw Ric?"

Sometimes, god help her, she wanted to put her hands around that Spencer harlot's throat and squeeze it. It would totally be Luke's fault because after all, by refusing to call her Alexis and by referring to her as that _other_ name, he had conjured out that really unpleasant alter of hers that she had kept stashed away inside her crowded brain. She would look up that shrink who had helped her out once when she had faked a split personality to avoid a murder rap…but oh wait, he had died at some point.

Then there was Mac, the image of who appeared in front of her even as she tried to will it away. Okay, maybe she really lusted over his older brother, the dashing WSB agent, Scorpio but since she couldn't have him, his younger brother would do in a pinch.

She wasn't sure what category her flirtation with Mac would fit in to…whether she'd marry him and keep her hands off or they'd never reach the altar but would engage in memorable and very witty flirtation until the embers of lust combusted between them. But she really wanted to find out…she just wished this pesky murder trial hadn't gotten in the way. Because Mac had told her sometime during the party that they could no longer be seen together at public gatherings. He sighed and just told her that it might appear unseemly for a police commissioner who upheld the law to be seen with a woman who broke it.

Okay, technically Alexis might be innocent until proven guilty of this latest murder but that might not matter…it was just too risky for his political career. Alexis had nodded gamely and their fingers had touched one last time as they moved apart. And then once he was gone, she had just closed her eyes and thought, my path to the light of goodness and purity has been forever vanquished by a man's goodbye. So that left Alexis free to embrace her dark side.

Her penchant for bad boys would now take free rein once again. Blonde, brunette, with bodies that were hardened by lots of exercise, not softened by age or weakness, yes that would work. The more psychopathic the better and if a dash of psychosis was thrown in the mix, intertwined with narcissism, all the better…oh her insides started to heat up just at the thought of hooking up with a guy who'd burn her heart with his eyes and her soul with his touch. If he shared her penchant for sharp objects, so much the better…and maybe this time, just maybe he'd keep his hands off of her tramp of a daughter, Sam.

Alex sighed because even though she had hit the booze hard after Mac's rejection, she had passed out on the table before she could do any more damage to her reputation as an upstanding citizen of the highest moral character in PC. And the hangover hadn't been that bad as she stood trying to get her bearings noticing the bodies sprawled on the floor of the club after the Nurse's Ball, passed out.

But she couldn't dwell on that, it was morning again and she had plenty of things to do…like maybe figure out where she had left her daughters.

* * *

Sam looked at Jason, as their bodies remained intertwined. She had this smoldering look on her face because the guy was seriously hot and she had been watching him sleeping, wrapped up in the bed sheet.

Then his eyes had popped open and he looked at her blankly, and before he could even say anything, her lips swooped down on his and they had seriously locked mouths while she rolled on top of him hoping for some early morning action before one of them had to go find a job.

They finally broke from their kiss because they had to breathe and then his eye lids fluttered.

"Brenda...is that you?"

The temperature quickly grew cold in that bed as Sam's lip began to quiver and she hitched up her sheet around her waist.

"Oh Jas…how could you? I gave you everything…and you were thinking of her the whole time you were doing me weren't you?"

Jason just stared at her.

"Sam…look it's nothing personal…but Brenda and I were dancing under the glittering ball hanging overhead and I thought we'd left together."

Sam rolled her eyes at him, her mouth firmly in a pout.

"She shacked up with Coleman last night…wearing Sonny's rock on her finger and the guy isn't cheap."

Jason blinked his eyes again because something didn't make sense here.

"But…"

She just got out of that bed, reaching for her robe…and snatched some plastic off the bed stand that she'd need when she was out shopping later.

"Isn't your mom's trial today?"

Sam sighed, way for Jas to change the subject on her in the midst of this massive betrayal. She didn't really believe he'd ever marry her not while still pining for Lollypop Liz but she thought she'd at least furnish her love nest with some really cool stuff before he moved on.

"No…she's got one of those…what do you call them…recesses? Do you want to go with me while I shop?"

Jason sighed.

"I've got to go meet Sonny."

Sam's mouth opened and she casually flipped a lock of hair back.

"I thought it was so over between the two of you."

Jason shook his head and went to the closet where he stashed his guns. He grabbed his two favorite pistols and then started to walk out of the apartment.

"Um Jas…"

He turned to look at Sam who had this odd expression on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"You might want to put on some clothes before you go outside."

Jason looked down and noticed he didn't have a stitch of clothing on him so he sighed and went to go find something to wear.

* * *

Kristina put on her iPod after leaving her empty house. She had no idea where Alexis had gone nor did she care. She walked by Molly's closed door and heard her singing to herself again…some strange song like it was from the last century.

After leaving her house to go meet Faith who was going to take her shopping for the prom, she headed down past the water front. Totally not her favorite place to be given its scummy condition but it was the shortest path to the shopping district.

She walked as the wisps of fog began to blow around her from the harbor and she heard the requisite fog horn and the ricochet of automatic gunfire from somewhere in the distance. She sped up the tempo of her walking and turned down the short stretch of alley she had to navigate to get where she was going.

Then she noticed some resistance below where she had stepped and as he looked down, she put her hand over her mouth and stifled a scream.

There lay Muffy her high school friend and former varsity cheerleader dead with her eyeless sockets aimed up at the sky.


	39. Chapter 39

Alexis blinked her eyes. Had someone just interrupted her from her inventory check of the men that she had tangled the sheets with since moving to PC? She looked up at that shaggy fest named Coleman and the look he gave her in return almost appeared sympathetic.

Oh no, she was so not sleeping with him. Somewhere a woman like herself had to draw the line and it was time for her to do just that.

"Coleman don't take this the wrong way but I'm not interested."

He smiled showing some teeth.

"Sweetheart don't write a check that lovely ass of yours can't cash."

She stammered.

"What the…"

He showed her even more teeth.

"Don't knock it until you try it."

That drawl of his, the origin of which she couldn't quite trace drove her nearly wild enough to take him up on whatever pathway towards sin he might suggest. After all, her murder trial had gone into recess so that left her the day and night free to kick up her heels a bit and seek out some fun. No frumpy Alexis today dressed up in her smart legal suit with briefcase and witty repertoire in hand. Okay, maybe she wouldn't forgo the latter but she tried to count back on the fingers of both hands how long it had been since she had gotten any horizontal action. Okay she had gone vertical in the elevator with that cad Jerry six months ago when he had been plying her with another one of his aliases.

But…why was Coleman looking at her like that?

"A phone call for you Alexis…line one."

She rearranged the thoughts in her head as she readjusted her wrinkled dress.

"Who is it?"

Coleman shrugged before padding back to the bar.

"Do I look like your butler…it sounds like it might have something to do with one of your daughters."

Alexis blinked…oh god that's right, she had just been about to leave this seedy dive and track them down…all two…three of them. There was Molly her little angel who was never any trouble…in fact Alexis couldn't remember the last time she'd even seen her. Then there was Sam, whose birth had been so memorable Alexis had no memory of it. For some reason as her daughter, Kristina her name was, lay dying in a hospital bed, something had flashed…oh she couldn't remember exactly how it had gone but she suddenly remembered at some point that she had a daughter when she had been what…12 years old, it had to be because that's the only way she could have a grown woman as a daughter when she hardly looked any older herself.

Sam had lost her own daughter, who would have been nearly a full sister to Kristina and Alexis didn't want this to be known but part of her had been relieved because she couldn't walk the streets of PC and be a…grandmother. Because then she'd be like some old biddy like Audrey who had never been quite the same after some crazy medical students had performed brain surgery on her with a power drill.

Or god forbid, that lady named Leslie who had been locked up inside a room somewhere only allowed to stray outside on isolated occasions. No one could actually remember what she looked like…no Alexis couldn't, no she wouldn't be a grandmother until she was like ancient, her bones about to decay to dust.

She reached the phone with those nightmarish thoughts inside her head and picked it up.

"Hello…this had better be really important because…"

It turned out to be Mac, the man who had just unceremoniously dumped her last night even though they had never slept together.

"Alexis…it's about one of your daughters."

"I know that Mac…which one got into trouble this time?"

He paused.

"There's been another murder…near the waterfront."

Alexis reeled at the news, at the thought that one of her precious daughters had just had her life snuffed out by another of PC's remorseless serial killers. But then wait a minute…she could never be sentenced to the guillotine now because surely even if she somehow wound up convicted in this kangaroo court, she would get some sympathy votes from jurors…as long as the foreman Eddy Q (as he preferred to be called these days) keeled over dead during deliberations. Yes, that just might save her life.

At any rate, at least she had an alibi for this latest murder.

"Which one…which one's dead…?"

Mac paused again.

"Actually none of them…Kristina was just picked up because she discovered her friend Muffy with her eyes ripped out of their sockets."

Alexis put her free hand to her heart.

"Oh how awful…Listen I was nowhere near the water front at the time…I swear that unto God and on the graves of all the dead innocents including dear Georgie."

"That's very generous of you Alexis," Mac said, "Now we've questioned her but she didn't see anything not even the body until she nearly stepped on it."

"Oh the poor dear…I suppose you want me to come fetch her."

Mac sighed.

"She needs her mother…she's been through quite a traumatic shock."

"Is she catatonic?"

"No…but she's sitting in the booking room looking all alone and she found something near the latest murder scene…it might have some significance for you…as it's the Cassadine coat of arms."

Alexis could have said that surprised her but that would be a lie. Nothing that murderous, psychotic and scandalous clan surprised her anymore. Oh, she would just have to go all the way to the police station and deal with this as her sense of duty as a member of a family that had no honor.

"Have you called her father…Sonny?"

Mac sighed again.

"Not yet…he's preparing his wedding to Brenda and has asked to not be disturbed in case we have to send out any police or a dragnet or SWAT team out to check on him."

Alexis hedged.

"Maybe you should just not contact him this time," she said, "I'm Kristina's mother and I can handle any crisis involving her myself."

Mac didn't sound so sure but he agreed. Alexis just knew that her ex had been encased in a serious state of denial about his fiancée who had just cheated on her premarital vows last night with that sumptuous beast Coleman. Not that she'd ever tell Sonny lest it spark another mental breakdown…leaving her as the bad fellow when the whole sordid tale hit the tabloid circuit.

She hung up the phone, picked up her things and whirled on out of there.

* * *

Max had finally been able to make it to his cell phone enough to dial up the operator and tell him to send the nearest locksmith over to his bachelor pad. He couldn't figure out why Dianne had left him in the lurch chained to the bedposts with those furry handcuffs again.

She had blew him a kiss and told him she'd return soon but it had been what a day or two and still no return. He knew her to be a cougar with more than a trace of feral inside of her luscious body. The locksmith had taken one look at his sorry state and then unlocked the handcuffs. This time he left Max with a spare key on a chain to wear around his neck because he was tired of interrupting his own life to free him. Max showered, shaved and got dressed in one of his trademark bodyguard suits and then raced out the door before realizing he'd forgotten to pack his pistols…so he had to go back and then realized he had locked himself out of his pad.

Johnny and that blonde girl dressed in the poodle skirt, her named escaped Max, sauntered on by, their arms wrapped around each other.

"Hi Max…"

The sweet voice resonated through Max' brain and then it hit him. This was Lulu from the Spencer clan. That pink sweater and poodle skirt she wore both hugged her petite body and accentuated her legs down to the tennis shoes she wore and those bobby socks with the fluffy little ball in the back. Oh god, his loins ached for her young supple body. Not that Dianne wasn't smoking in the sack especially when dressed in leather but a little variety...the spice of life and all that…but then he remembered who her daddy was and the whip that guy welded was somewhat more deadly than the leather one favored by Dianne.

"Locked out again dude?"

Max just stood there looking at them not wanting to admit it to Johnny Wonderful who never took a wrong step.

"I'm fine…just late to work."

Johnny scratched his head frowning.

"Dude that just sucks…hey why don't you come with us to get a bite to eat?"

Lulu smiled one of her radiant ones at him and Max felt his heart go pitter pat. Some people just looked at him and saw a silent wall of muscle….Sonny's bouncer but he had feelings too.

"Yeah Max…it's be awesome if you joined us."

He considered it, his brain never working all that fast but suddenly a light went on and he found himself nodding.

"Cool dude, let's go then…"

The three of them left the building.

* * *

Liz had just left the hospital after the emergency appendectomy done with a pocket knife and some sulfuric acid before rushing off to Johnny Wonderful's place. She had looked both ways in the nurse's locker room before opening hers and pulling out her French maid costume, the one that Johnny loved to run his hands over before removing off of her body. She felt heat building inside of her because Lucky hadn't been paying much attention since he'd taken off with his father Luke who had left town and Tracy for a couple months of vagabond living. Given enough time, Luke would probably stumble back onto the canvas, with some seriously wild hair, some five o'clock shadow and another recently discovered son.

That's what Liz had told Lucky anyway but he hadn't listened and he had thumbed for a ride out of PC alongside his father. She decided then she was done with the whole Spencer clan.

But as she slipped into the fifth Brownstone from the left of the foggiest dock offshore from the remnants of Kelly's Diner she noticed it looked empty but still she continued up the stairs, careful of how she walked lest she wind up in some Asian rain forest, until she rounded the corner.

What she saw in front of her made her eyes widen.

"Good morning Liz…," said Faith, her skin shimmering like diamonds.


	40. Chapter 40

Alexis reeled from the slap of a hand against her face before her eyes refocused on her twin standing in front of her.

She placed her palm over her cheek.

"Why'd you go and do that?"

Julia, her better dressed and feistier twin stepped back to admire her handiwork. She just looked like she wanted to slap her again.

"I look at you and I can't believe we're even related let alone twins."

Alexis blinked her eyes.

"Me either but unless someone switched the DNA tests…no that wouldn't happen since they transferred all the DNA samples into the new vault and set up a whole batch of booby traps."

Julia just felt her palms itch. Didn't her twin sister know that every foolish action she engaged in, every stupid word that came out of from her lips only moved her ever closer to the guillotine that awaited her?

She wanted to lock herself in a room and channel some dead Cassadine to do what needed to be done to this backwoods town but she had to help her sister. So she tried to will herself to be patient.

"Alexis, why did you run to the police station last night?"

Her sister just rolled her eyes dramatically.

"I didn't run…I drove and I made it there without hitting anyone…I think."

Julia folded her arms.

"But why did you drive down there?"

Alexis sighed, wanting badly to get drunk in Coleman's bar and watch him undergo his transformation to raw beast with only the pool table between them. If only she could get her annoying doppelganger to just leave.

"Kristina needed me," she said, "She'd just discovered that her friend I can't remember which one had been murdered."

Julia drummed her fingers on her arms.

"God, I hope you have an alibi."

Alexis just looked at her blankly.

"Well…no….why do I need one," she said, pacing again, "Why is it that everyone thinks I'm the one responsible for all these killings?"

Julia's eyes bore into hers.

"I don't know, you tell me," she said, "But if you're innocent of these crimes and others I don't want to know about, why did you try to seduce him in the jail cell?"

Alexis drew another blank and then she remembered.

"Oh you mean Max…the commissioner of the police department," she said, "I did nothing of the sort. We just engaged in our usual endless foreplay of verbal banter. It meant nothing."

Julia just shook her head.

"Not that he's probably not much tamer than the men you usually attract," she said, "but the police commissioner, really Alexis, how will the jury not believe you didn't try to bribe him?"

Alexis got a bit huffy.

"He came onto me this time," she said, "He spoke first."

Julia just walked away from her sister thinking not for the first time how hopeless this whole case she inherited had been, and the flight of stairs beckoned...perhaps some tropical island with plenty of coconut trees and shimmering sands would be waiting for her up the single flight.

"Look I just wanted to make sure that my daughter was okay," Alexis started, "First of all I didn't even know she had any friends and that's so sweet but when they get brutally murdered, god, what anguish it causes me."

Julia rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe it. Your own daughter sees her friend's dead body and somehow you've made it all about you."

Alexis gritted her teeth.

"If I didn't care about myself who would? My oldest daughter whose father I can't remember fornicated with my loser of a second husband on my own living room rug. I had to remove it with a blow torch and just toss it to breathe again. Then Kristina's turned from this sweet darling of a child I never heard from into this surly rebellious teenager…and my boyfriends are all either psychos or killers or both."

Alexis sat back down again, reaching for her hanky to dab her eyes with occasionally.

"But the only blessing in all this is my dear sweet youngest daughter Molly," she said, "I never had one moment's trouble or need to worry about my precious angel…"

Then her dreamy smile turned into a frown.

"By the way where is she anyway?"

Julia just turned her back on Alexis to think rather than to walk away from her forever like she preferred but she'd made a promise to another that she wouldn't let her go down in flames and she knew she had to keep it.

* * *

Lulu straddled Max, who she had tied up once they crashed Diane's apartment and she found the closet filled with toys. Silken ropes attracted her searching eyes and the look on Max's face lit her own face up.

Soon enough, she had tied him up again just as Diane had left him after she got that mysterious phone call in the old WSB radio room that had been mothballed for years.

"Ooooh….you're so sexy all trussed up," she gasped, still wearing her poodle skirt and preppy blouse.

He smiled up at her.

"What about your squeeze Johnny what's his name?"

She shrugged.

"Oh he doesn't care as long as I remember that he's the one I love," she said, "I think he's with lollypop Liz right now."

Max narrowed his eyes suddenly.

"Does your father know?"

"You mean Luke…?"

She had stopped being able to call him her father when he disappeared on his frequent sabbaticals and she no longer remembered what he looked like. With a catatonic mother at the asylum, she had lacked for parental guidance and her brothers Lucky and Niklos were an exercise in contrasts.

Lucky had left town again after he found out that Liz had been cuddling with Niklos in his coffin back on Spoon Island and Niklos had started claiming that the estate that he lived in had been haunted. Lulu had rolled her eyes thinking it must be his grandmother Helena gas lighting him again for fun and to keep her skills sharp for during that brief window of time that Laura's catatonia would reverse itself. Luke would pretend to be the doting husband again and Lulu would dress up in little girl clothes to make her mother happy.

But in the meantime she had one man exactly where she wanted, tied up in bed about to be caressed by a feather duster.

She picked it up to him and Max arched his body on the bed in anticipation.

* * *

Felicia wearing her usual vagabond wardrobe burst into the household she had shared with Mac so long ago, looking for her girls.

"Girls where are you," she said, "Mommy's back home again."

Silence greeted her and she looked around, her pixie face crinkling into a frown. Maxi and Georgia where were they? Why weren't they sitting side by side on the sofa in matching outfits eagerly awaiting her return with some home cooked food simmering in the stove and new sheets on her bed and pillows feathered just the way she liked?

"Maxie…Georgia…come on out and kiss your mama," she said, "She doesn't like it when you hide…"

She heard footsteps behind her.

"It's too late Felicia," Brooklyn sighed, wiping her eyes with a hanky, "Georgia's with the angels now."

Felicia didn't quite get that reference.

"What do you mean," she said, "I mean I know she played one in the school play I missed but she's got to be at least 10 by now."

Brooklyn's eyes turned downcast and her body sheathed in gothic dress trembled.

"She's dead…murdered by a hunk of a guy who killed half the town."

Felicia looked troubled. No one had told her that this charming little town could be so dangerous to her two girls. She'd had so many plans for her first night back. A sleep out where they'd dress up in their jammies and do each other's hair and nails. They'd kick Mac and the other men out and it's just be the girls.

She rubbed her hands, thinking how much fun that would be but now this waif standing in front of her, what was her name again, had told her that Georgia, the daughter she'd given birth to underneath a table had been killed.

"Why didn't anyone tell me," she said, "When Mac gets back, so help me…I'm going to…"

Brooklyn shook her head sadly.

"He mourned her as long as he could," she said, "as if she were his own and unlike her parents, he didn't leave her on some whim."

Damn, Felicia looked down at her swollen abdomen, courtesy of when she crossed paths with her ex-husband Frisco in Nairobi while they both searched for some missing crown jewel from some ancient relic that of course carried the requisite curse upon whoever touched it.

Then the bolt of lightning hit her as she realized that the curse of the relic had killed Georgia and since Frisco had talked her into helping him after they shared some horizontal sheet time, it was all his fault.

Her face lit up.

"Oh just wait until I get my hands on…"

Then the door flew open and some GQ models dressed in firefighter clothes rushed in the house. Brooklyn just looked at them while Felicia fluffed up her hair and searched her beaded purse for some lipstick.

"What's going on," she finally said.

One firefighter looked at her.

"The PC dam has just been blown up by some unknown party and there's a flood coming this way…"

The two women looked at each other and then they grabbed hold of each other, praying to whatever gods that were listening that if anyone died, it would be some insignificant bit players on the PC scene and not them.


	41. Chapter 41

Alexis didn't get the news flash about the impending flood and if she had, she would have dismissed it because what did a natural disaster matter when her life was at stake?

Not to mention a mess because her cad of an ex Ric still hadn't turned up and whispers were carried on the wind that he might not be coming back. That his bones might be rattling somewhere in the catacombs, the last place he'd been seen since he vanished.

Yes, she had received some phone messages from various detectives at the PCPD inquiring into the whereabouts of her last husband but did they really think she had the time to respond to them all? If by chance he had gotten himself murdered, anyone in a town filled with closeted sociopaths could have done it. Not that she hadn't flirted with the idea of offing him herself…especially after his dalliances with what's her name who he had flaunted right in front of her while the entire town traveled the voyage of the damned. Only they had all gotten a luxury train and it had something, she couldn't remember what exactly to do with Lollipop Liz's wedding to the son of Laura Spencer who didn't concern her, Lucky.

Anyway, she'd been about to pop with Molly and Ric had flaunted his slovenly mistress in front of her before there'd been some sort of disastrous crash and she'd had to have her belly sliced open by that miracle of light, Robin. She'd given birth to sweet innocent Molly during the most barbaric conditions but then she'd always been a survivor.

Well, Lucky and Liz's marriage had gone kaput and the crash had been a harbinger of sorts that the clueless couple just hadn't picked up on while they'd all been trapped in that wreck.

But if Ric had been iced, it really was no major loss anyway. Maybe if it had been her favorite husband in the whole wide world Jax or her almost but not quite husband Ned, it might have been a hardship in her life. She shuddered at the thought that anything like that might have happened to Jax…especially given that they'd never done the nasty together…biggest mistake in his life. But then again, the guy had gone up and married that witch Carly, who really wasn't fit to occupy this earth especially the way she dressed.

After all, who could forget how her first born, thug in training Michael had nearly ruined Kristina's life?

She heard the door bell ringing and went to open it. Mac came rushing inside, with his hard helmet on his head and his police commissioner uniform on his strapping body. She felt a sliver of heat simmering through her at the sight, causing her to lick her lips.

"Mac…what a surprise…"

Okay, she started foreplay this time but would it go anywhere? He just nodded in response, his face grim.

"Alexis why are you still here?"

She threw up her hands.

"Okay Mac I know I should have returned all those phone calls about my no good ex Ric but…"

His brows furrowed.

"Ric…?"

She shut up on that topic, not wanting to push it. She needed to soften her approach if she wanted him to forget what she just said.

"What's up?"

He sighed, shaking his head at her.

"The damn dam broke," he said, "And there's a wall of water coming this way."

Alexis arched her brow at the development. Did Mac just swear? She thought she heard a word from the banned list creep into his declarative.

"Did you hear me Alexis…you don't get out of here now and head to high ground, you're going to die."

She blinked her eyes. That hadn't been part of her life's script, the one where she played the lead and everyone else were extras, unless they were tall, gorgeous and more than slightly insane.

She folded her arms.

"I'm not leaving," she said, "I'm just not ready, I'm on trial for my life."

"It's been postponed until after the flood."

Her mouth hung open because she hadn't known that. She had to put her life, her future, her crisis on hold because of a damn flood?

"You'd better get Molly and Kristina…"

She frowned and waved her hand.

"Kristina's at the station because her friend, what's her name, got murdered."

Mac nodded but then looked troubled.

"She was…but she left before the dam broke."

Damn, Alexis thought, now she actually had to figure out where she might be but Molly, she must be around here somewhere.

Somewhere in the house…and just then Max appeared to have read her mind.

"I'll get Molly…"

He zipped out to go rescue her youngest daughter and Alexis sighed, thinking him sexy for that. Maybe tonight, bundled up somewhere on high ground, she and Mac could take their verbose flirtation one step further…to hand holding.

Mac returned almost as quickly as he left.

"Did you find her?"

His eyes grew stark, and she thought she saw something akin to horror in them.

"Where's my daughter," she said, "She hardly ever leaves the house."

He hesitated.

"Alexis..I think you need to see her room," he said, "but you'd better brace yourself."

She gripped his strong arm.

"What is it…give me some hint Mac so I'm not totally off guard…"

He just shook his head and they went back to Molly's bedroom where the door remained open and Alexis took a gander and then turned around to face him.

"It's just her doll collection," she said, "Molly's always loved to play with her dollies."

Mac's jaw clenched.

"Take a closer look at them."

So Alexis did that and her eyes widened. They had to do that because all of Molly's dolls lying strewn all over the floor had one thing in common.

They had no eyes.

* * *

Diane raced through the brownstone house to her apartment, zipping up the stairs careful with each stride that she took because she didn't need to wind up in the public scare of an Italian town right now. She had heard news on the radio on the way home from the PC airport about the impending flood and her first thought besides her toy collection had been Max.

She had some vague recollection of having left him tied to her bed some time ago before she's been called on her secret mission. But he must have been able to get loose and if he were home, she'd jump into his arms and they'd hit the sheets as if it were the last night on earth. After all, if PC got flooded, then everyone might be doomed and why wait to drown when she still had her favorite collection of silken ropes to try out?

Not to mention the new riding crop she'd purchased after she'd finished saving the world outside PC once again. The texture against his skin would tantalize him…as it teased.

She got to the front door of her apartment but found it ajar.

"What the…?"

Then she reached for her gun, pulling it out of her ankle holster and aiming it inside the empty apartment. Not too empty because she heard some boisterous activity in what sounded like her bedroom.

She smiled to herself wondering if Max had been so lonely, so wanton with lust while she'd been gone that he had resorted to some self-love. Oh, the thought of him doing that because they both got off on watching each other filled her with salacious pleasure. She dropped her bag and started peeling off her traveling clothes until she only wore her leather bodice and thigh high stockings with a wisp of g-string in between.

She might not be a spring chicken or a PC pouting babe but she still had it and Mac would remember how smoking hot it had been between them when she walked into the room.

But when she did that, she realized that he hadn't been bouncing alone. Sure enough, he was tied to the bed but some blond troll up was with him.

"Excuse me…"

Lulu turned her head, her curls bouncing as she saw Diane standing in the doorway thinking she looked damn hot for an old gal.

"I was just…he was…cheering me up after Johnny Wonderful pulled one of his numbers again and one thing…"

Diane folded her arms.

"Led to another…oh you impetuous young tarts…but Lulu…dear…Max likes his cougar and not a kitten like you."

Lulu's face fell.

"Does this mean I have to go?"

Diane appeared to be thinking about that when she remembered why she had rushed home.

"We all have to go," she said, "there's a flood coming and all of PC's going to be washed away…finally and I'm not sitting her waiting for it while watching some young thing fails at pleasing my man."

Lulu felt anger rush through her but if a flood was coming and everyone was in danger, then she needed to put her own safety aside and rush off to find Johnny Wonderful. What if he didn't know that a flood was on its way until it was too late? She had to save the most important person in her life. She got off of Max and went to find her shoes.

"I got to find him…"

"Who…"

Lulu looked up at Diane gravely.

"The man I love…Johnny Wonderful."

Diane tried not to laugh.

"Just stop talking and let's cut Max loose and get the hell out of here before it's too late."

Lulu just stared at her and then she went to untie Max, unable to stop thinking about Johnny Wonderful and the danger he must be in right now.

* * *

Johnny Wonderful looked up at Liz as she dusted his cabinet dressed in her French maid outfit. Though some found her gaunt from all the ordeals she'd faced recently, he thought she looked just perfect.

Lulu, now she didn't look bad but she still carried that baby fat on her and he wanted a woman honed down to the curves, a woman like Liz who smiled at him right now.

So he pulled her closer to him and they kissed, while in the other room, the radio broadcast emergency information about the approaching flood and outside the window, a serial killer awaited.

Actually two of them with time to…kill while awaiting the urges that led them to claim their next victims…

The better looking one, Franco had breezed in from where some experiments had gone terribly awry and a mob of pretty impressive creatures had been chasing him. PC just seemed the perfect haunt to return to in hopes of honing his craft.

But standing behind him, another killer watched the killer who watched the victims as the flood waters began to wind down the mountain onto the town below.


	42. Chapter 42

Kristina wrapped her jacket around her as she walked down an abandoned street, which just moments before must have filled with crowds of people. But now, there was an unearthly silence that surrounded her.

She had just walked out of the police station and no one not even Mac seemed to care. While sitting there pondering the murder of her friend, she thought of the bargain prices on dresses at a couple of the boutiques and decided to go burn some more of her mom's plastic. She had lifted several cards from Alexis' wallet and had tried a couple, only to fnd out that they'd been maxed out. Probably not by her mom who had been too much of a mess to go shopping lately so that left Sam and so credit card within the grasp of her talons was safe for long.

As she continued, she noted a row of trees next to her, all looking battered which meant that her half brother Michael had passed by recently. She guessed his medication ran out and his dad hadn't gotten him refills.

"Kristina…what are you doing out by yourself?"

Her heart sank as she recognized her father's voice and turned around to see him standing there with his latest bride to be. Brenda, who tried to look ultra cool and unaffected in her chiffon gown and silver heels while toting a matching purse. She hadn't been aware that any parties had been going on but maybe her father was in one of his dark moods and led a private soiree.

"Is this Kristina?"

Had Brenda actually asked a question about someone besides herself? Kristina blinked her eyes because the latest mafia moll had never had a moment in her life when she hadn't been self-centered. Kristina knew that Sonny wound up squiring her around town every few years when she surfaced in PC after pulling one of her disappearing acts.

"That's my name, who the hell are you again?"

Brenda's face fell and her mascara coated eyes twittered.

"I'm your father's fiancée, his next and last bride to be."

Kristina chuckled unable to help herself.

"That's what they all say including the ones who died," she said, "I'm just glad my mom didn't marry him. No offense….Dad but I can only imagine what it'd be like to live in the same house.

Just her, her two half sisters and her mom…not too mention the rest of Sonny's harem. Because Kristina was a teenager wise way beyond her years and she knew that Sonny didn't stay true to one woman.

Brenda tossed a pouted look at Sonny.

"Did you just hear what she said to me?"

Sonny in the henpecked phase of his relationship with Brenda just sighed over at his daughter.

"Be nice to my next bride and mother of my children."

Kristina shrugged.

"You actually getting married first this time?"

Brenda pointed a manicured finger at Kristina.

"You see what this shameless imp just said to me?"

Sonny scratched his head.

"Actually I think she said it to me."

Brenda just shook her head.

"It was me, she was disrespecting and you need to be able to control your own daughter."

* * *

Sonny just looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering if there was a way out of here that didn't involve calling Jason in and leaving with him in a hail of double gunned fire. He reached for his cell phone until he remembered the two of them currently weren't speaking to each other.

"Brenda…Kristina…"

Then Coleman walked up to them, his animalistic charisma lifting up Brenda's brows.

"Coleman…," she purred.

"Brenda…Sonny…what are you doing in front of my bar?"

They both blinked

"I'm getting hassled by my dad's latest Bridezella…"

Brenda just turned to Sonny.

"Slap her…or do…something…Oh god, I broke a nail."

Coleman grabbed her hands with his and looked into her eyes, growling lightly.

"You're not my type…a bit too high maintenance for me but

Brenda sighed.

"Oh Coleman dear, I can be just what you want me to be…"

Sonny blinked his eyes again, watching Coleman whip up another spell around one of his woman. Anger filled his body and his fists clenched but the bar owner had nearly a foot on him.

"You are…you're dead to me."

Coleman raised a bushy brow.

"Whatever floats your boat dude…I'm packing up the bar."

Brenda found herself wishing she would rub her hands against his magnificent body.

"Why are you doing that?"

Coleman's faced etched gravity.

"The dam broke and there's going to be a huge flood."

Sonny blanched.

"Oh great, Mac and his goons are going to think Jas or I did it."

Kristina looked over at Coleman.

"What about us," she said, "Are we safe here because I have some shopping to do."

Coleman shook his head and looked at his watch.

"Hey I'd love to sit here and chat but we have less than five minutes before this street turns into the PC river."

Brenda grabbed Coleman's arm.

"I need you to save me," she said, "Please…I don't want to die."

Kristina just looked at her in disgust and then over at her useless dad who had just whipped out his cell phone, what so he could call Jas who was probably out doing the nasty with Sam before she ripped him off again.

"Jas…This is Sonny…Yes you are still to dead to me but I need to act you a quick question…did you order up a dam explosion?"

* * *

Jas didn't hear his cell phone go off because he'd switched it off after Sam had hitched up her baggy pants, tucked in her slovenly top and had lured him to the alley behind the coffee place. Before he knew it, she'd pressed him against the brownstone wall and started kissing him.

"Sam…"

She moaned as her hands ran over his back and then straight to the snap on his killer pants.

"I got to have you Jas…right now…"

He fidgeted in her embrace.

"But I thought I heard something that a dam broke…dams hold back entire bodies of water…dam breaks, where does water go…?"

Sam listened to him ramble on while she licked his neck, preparing her teeth for a gentle nibble. God, she loved listening to his thought processes…just like foreplay.

"Sam…"

She put a finger on his mouth and looked into his eyes.

"No Jas…I'm in charge now," she said, "You see I was rummaging through the trash bin at the Brownstone you know being an investigator and I found this book on tying people up."

Jason's eyes widened.

"Are you going to tie me up?"

She thought about it, wrinkling her forehead.

"Maybe after we…you see I don't have any rope and I need to borrow your plastic anyway so I'll just put it on the list…"

Her lips planted on Jason's pliant ones again, and he surrendered to her wanton side. All thoughts of dams bursting and streets filled with water and screaming people leaving his head.

* * *

Alexis stood at her station behind the long wooden table hating life right now. She, Mac and the two dimwits had made it to the building that had been designated an emergency shelter. Actually, she thought looking around, it looked kind of like a high school, didn't she have a daughter attending there? She couldn't remember but anyway, someone had handed her a dreadful looking apron, a soup ladle and then directed her to where a line of men, women and children both dead and undead waited to be fed.

What did she look like, some do gooder? She had her moments; she had dropped a check every now and then when they ran the Nurses' ball even after they had banned her from performing. Just because she had a little too much tequila one year and she and Diane had been doing some pole dancing.

"Excuse me, is that chicken noodle?"

Alexis blinked her eyes and looked down at the bubbling, creamy broth with what looked like wilted celery in it. God, it turned her stomach and it smelled like old shoe leather.

"I don't know…they just grabbed me when I came here and stuck me here," she said, "when what I really was trying to do was find out what happened to my three beautiful baby girls."

The woman who asked the question looked at her, pity lining her face.

"Oh you poor thing," she said, "But that nice police commissioner is here somewhere and I'm sure he'll be happy to help you find them."

Alexis grimaced.

"I'm sure he's got more important things to do."

The woman arched her brows.

"Than looking for innocent little children lost out there in the flood, I can't think of anything that's more important…"

Alexis looked around at the shelter which had filled up considerably in the past hour as PC denizens; those who survived the flood began to show up. She thought she'd seen Liz performing abdominal surgery using some battery powered knife and Brooklyn's hair for stitches.

Lulu had her arm tucked in Johnny Wonderful's refusing to leave him even for a moment while Felicia had slipped out again after being told by someone in charge of the bathroom line. Seriously how could Felicia be so damn selfish, running out on her kids all the time not to mention making some seriously bad choices in the man she chose to father her children.

"Alexis darling…I didn't imagine I'd see you here…"

She looked up and saw Jerry what's his name this time standing in front of her.

"Hey doll baby…"

Brooklyn looked up and saw a guy with dark hair and shades, with one of his hands in a cast.

"Who are you…you look familiar…"

He smiled widely.

"I'm Franco…I drop by PC now from my busy life to see what's going on," he said, "and I have to say you're the prettiest sight in the room."

Brooklyn made a face and then unwrapped another piece of gum sticking it inside her mouth.

"Never met you…"

He cooed softly.

"What a shame, a beautiful vibrant woman like yourself who doesn't have a man taking care of her in a crisis."

Brooklyn sighed.

"I never get the man," she said, "Lulu gets him."

He slipped his arm around her tattooed shoulders.

"Well come with me because your luck is about to change."

She shrugged and walked off with him while behind her an ethereal wisp of fog began to take shape.

What had once been Georgia stood there, her mouth forming a single word. The one she had said most often during her life as the wholesome good girl.

"Nooooooooooo….."


	43. Chapter 43

Alexis finally plotted her escape from manning the soup line when she saw a mysterious figure wearing a coat. She couldn't see his face but she felt his cologne, his muskiness lure her like an aphrodisiac. Seriously it had been so long since she'd engaged in anything livelier, sexier than verbal banter with a man who'd probably never sweep her off her feet and take her into his lair anyway.

Hell, Mac probably didn't even have a lair. But more than a few of the bad boys who had lured her off to bed had pretty impressive digs. She'd had her share of good guys like Ned who she just couldn't marry and Jax who she did for business reasons but right now, she hungered for a truly bad boy.

Someone like Jerry, with a killer body, a wicked tongue that could slice through her defenses in very different ways and toss in a little sociopathic personality and she was set.

She had thought that Sonny might fit that category and she had been hot to trot to bed him for a while but when it came down to it, he hadn't really been all that hot. Not nearly bad enough to send her insides sizzling…not that it had been all bad, they'd had a daughter together. Kristina, her name was and if Alexis couldn't quite picture her in her head anymore, well when they met up at some point, she'd remember.

Ric had lived his whole life trying to emulate his older half brother even as he hated him. That of course met sharing all his women which was how he and Sam had hooked up one night on what used to be Alexis' favorite shag rug. But then again, that's what attracted that cad to her. What Sonny had, Ric wanted and since Alexis had given him a child, then she owed him one too. He had held her hand and pledged eternal love when Robin had sliced Molly out of her to save them both but that hadn't lasted long before his eye wandered again and this time had been enticed by her oldest daughter.

Who had also been pregnant by Sonny at some point…oh the family trees in PC could get so intertwined at times it was downright scary.

Alexis sidled quietly away from the soup line outside of the watchful eye of Bobbie who no one had seen in quite a while but she always seemed to pop up and take charge in emergencies like this one. The man in the coat eyed her and she thought she saw his mouth curve into a seductive smile.

A very familiar looking smile.

Oh no, she thought, it couldn't be…it was…

"Hi my darling Alexis…"

She rolled her eyes when she saw Jerry step out of the shadows, his body looking every inch the killer she knew him to be but her knees went weak in the face of him. What woman would not prostrate herself in front of this man? Yeah, people had a way of winding up dead when he showed up but the day he had taken her on her desk…it had left sizzle marks etched on the wood and seared inside of her soul. But in the end, he'd turned out to be yet another bad boy who harbored lustful intentions towards her oldest daughter.

Honestly what did Sam have that attracted Alexis' husbands and lovers to her like flies? She dressed slovenly and like a hussy no matter what motherly advice Alexis had given her and when she'd handed her some plastic to buy professional attire for a new job, Sam had returned dressed up like…a harlot! Last she heard, her daughter had shacked up with that blank faced sociopathic sidekick of Sonny's named Jason.

What had happened to the sweet faced medical student whose face still adorned the halls of PC University and General Hospital? How could getting in a car wreck abruptly turn such a gentle if bland soul into a remorseless hit man? Well, at least they couldn't blame her for that tragedy.

But Alexis hated seeing Sam hanging around with lowlifes and no doubt, sleeping with them too. So she had been calling around town for a professional matchmaker to set her daughter with a more appropriate young man, someone with a future that didn't involve maiming or killing. Someone with more than one facial expression in his repertoire of communication skills and who didn't run double barreled into churches with guns blazing.

Jerry just gazed at her like the predator he'd proven to be, and she felt her insides melt.

"Do you have a moment," he said, "I never thought I'd see you again."

She folded her arms.

"Jerry…dear…I think what we had was…different but I can't see you anymore."

It killed her to say that, stripped her bare all the way to her marrow because deep inside of her beneath the repressed exterior, she wanted him to manhandle her, to pull the tablecloth off of the table, sending soup bowls and crackers flying before having his way with her right in the table. She felt the flickers of intense desire threaten to combust if he didn't put his hands on her right now.

He purred at her rejection, knowing how to undo her inhibitions with just a look.

"You know you want me…right here…right now…oh the places I could take you," he whispered, as he approached her.

Her heart thudded in her chest just as it had when she'd been with Sam's father...whoever he was…and she knew in a minute…Jerry would have her exactly where he wanted her.

But then she remembered a lesson she'd picked up from her law partner and best frenemy, Diane.

"That's all well and good Jerry but only on one condition."

He sighed, his eyes dilating.

"Anything my darling…anything within reason of course."

Her eyes danced and she bit her lip coquettishly.

"Only if I can tie you up first…"

* * *

Johnny Wonderful looked into Lulu's eyes but across the room, he'd seen Olivia smoldering in a hot dress as she helped carry trays of freshly baked bread from the kitchen. Robin had arrived with her daughter and had taken over cooking food for all the flood refugees in the kitchen. When someone had asked her to do a tracheotomy on a man whose throat had been crushed by a flying bowling ball, she shook her head.

"I'm sorry but I can't…I've got six loaves waiting to be put in the oven..."

So Liz had performed the surgery instead with a screwdriver and a portable fan. She'd been in her element feeling as if she'd waited her whole life, gone through a lot of loser relationships and birthed several children just for this moment in time. A long line of patients with all types of ailments and injuries awaited her and she recruited Maxie to help her because Brooklyn had gone and disappeared on her.

Maxie had been trying to reach Niklos on Spoon Island but couldn't get through. He'd been spending a lot of time brooding in his coffin lately so maybe that weakened the signal. She just clicked off her phone and got to work organizing the meager supplies that they were using on their patients.

She admired Liz so much, the tragedies that woman had faced in her short life and the incredible men who she had lured into her bed. In fact, she wanted to be just like her. Maybe not so much with the tragedy but with the hot guys, hell yeah. She'd tried to be sincere and not so shallow in her selection of men but it hadn't worked out well.

But Niklos, he was handsome in an angst filled way and yet he had an intellectual side so maybe he would strike the balance that she needed. She had seen her wayward mother wandering around here somewhere but she had taken off again.

She barely remembered what her father looked like.

Liz looked up at her.

"I need the nail clippers…"

Maxie drew a blank.

"The what…?

Liz's face looked serene in its urgency.

"The clippers and hurry…I don't want him to de-fib again."

Maxie nodded and handed her the clippers, having no idea what Liz would use them for but knowing that she felt alive and excited just working alongside her.

* * *

Franco walked away from where he had tied up Brooklyn, in the basement of the building. No one would think to look there because as far as they knew, there was no basement. At least not until now…

He had been consumed with all the things in life he wanted to do, he wanted to be an artist, a performer and a scientist but being a serial killer hadn't been part of his original life plan. But when you discovered in the midst of all this chaos, you had a gift, he believed in exploring it.

And so he set up his lair in the basement below where the life and death struggle of a town trapped by flood waters took place.

"Hey, don't leave me here," Brooklyn said, "This was just getting like…hot…"

He looked at her puzzled.

"Why do you say that?"

She looked up from where she'd been tied up on some rack.

"I always had thought it'd be cool to be tied up and totally like at some guy's mercy."

Her words intrigued him.

"Are you serious?"

She nodded avidly and he gave what she said some thought.

"Maybe we'll explore that a bit later…but I've got things I've got to do first…many things."

"Whatever…just a suggestion."

He left her there and walked up the crooked staircase up to the ground floor. He slipped out of the doorway and given the chaos, no one appeared to notice. Then someone blew a whistle at him.

Startled, he looked up to see Alice dressed in her maid's uniform giving him a stern look.

"You…there…get the mop and clean up the spill by the soup table," she said, "We can't afford to have any slackers on this ship."

He looked at her taken aback by the clear exercise of authority she had over him…did she recognize him?

"Did you just hear what I said slacker," she said, handing him his mop and bucket, "Now get moving…or else."

He meekly moved quickly into the main room to clean up the mess.

* * *

Sam and Jason were still going hot and heavy in the alley, the only sound being their bodies colliding with each other and the trash dumpster they used to prop them up. Their hands all over each other, tugging at clothing and their mouths locked together.

She could never get enough of him, every time he looked at her as if she weren't there; it just made her feel hot. She reached for his pants and then he stopped suddenly, freezing.

"Sam…"

"What Jas baby?"

He remained completely still and she reached into her pants pocket for another piece of chewing gum to tide her over.

"Do you hear something?"

She wrinkled her brow listening but shook her head.

"You sure…it sounds like…"

Just then, the sound turned into a thunderous crescendo that drew ever closer to them…


	44. Chapter 44

Kristina walked down the deserted street, still wondering where all the people had gone. A quiet darkness surrounded her and she felt as if she were being watched but as she looked up at the boutique ahead of her, she forgot about all that.

Because like the coolest dresses in all of PC were in display just behind a pane of glass and her mother's credit card that she'd lifted itched in her hand. It hadn't been easy to even dig up any plastic in the house given that Hurricane Sam had already cleaned out the family credit line. But she'd found one tucked beneath the sofa cushion that either had eluded Sam's slick fingers or had fallen out of her bra when she'd been cavorting with Jason on the couch.

She didn't approve of Sam rolling on the shag carpet with her mother's ex-husband nor that had she almost become Sam's stepdaughter as well as her half-sister. But when Sam had hooked back up with Jason, well that was just so tacky…because what Jason needed was a sweet young thing with shiny hair, a more youthful body and who didn't dress like a hobo or a slut. No, with her new friend Faith's fashion guidance, her wardrobe had really started looking smart in the past few months. No one would ever confuse her with a skank and as soon as Jason got his head screwed back on straight, he'd realize his true babe had been in front of him the whole time.

The boutique looked deserted but the front door, wide open so she decided to go inside and check it out. To see whether those hot little dresses in the window display looked as happening on her body. She noticed that the showroom looked dimly lit and that no one appeared to be working there. Maybe the owner had left on a break and would soon return.

Maybe she should just turn around and leave until she returned. But as she started to turn toward the door, the black little dress with the sequins on it, it beckoned to her. She couldn't help herself as she reached out to stroke the fabric.

"Looks beautiful doesn't it?"

Kristina spun around to see Faith standing there looking luminescent as ever.

"What are you doing here?"

Faith just smiled, her eyes glimmering.

"I thought I'd check out the sales while PC burns…or in this case gets washed out."

Kristina looked puzzled, why did it often seem that adults spoke in riddles?

"What do you mean?"

Faith clasped her hands together.

"The PC dam has finally broken and at this moment, a wall of water as tall as a building is heading our way," she said, "It will cleanse all the evil in this town so we can start anew."

Kristina eyed the dresses again.

"You mean all these stores are going to be…"

Faith nodded.

"Washed away…and everything in them."

Kristina pondered further.

"Then all the people…they left to get away from it."

"Some of them will make it," Faith said, "but the sinners will be washed away out to sea."

Kristina thought that hardly seemed fair. That would wipe out some of PC's most fascinating denizens. Including….oh no, what would happen to Jason? Because Kristina knew he had committed murder for her father and that made him…no he couldn't wash away with her father and others in the flood.

And her mother had been on trial for committing a murder to add to her list of them, so she'd be washed away too. Which members of her family would be left?

Except for her younger sister Molly who had never even held an evil thought about another person.

Faith studied her very carefully, her talon stroking her chin while Kristina's attention moved on from such dire thoughts back to the dress rack and that wonderful number with the sequins.

"Go on and take it," she said, "No one's here to stop you and no one will ever miss it."

Kristina's fingers itched but she hesitated.

"I…I can't…"

Faith's eyes lit up and her skin twinkled like diamonds.

"Yes you can….go on; it'll fit you perfectly like it was created just for you."

Kristina heard that and wondered if that were the case and if so, maybe it would be fine if she just took it off the rack and left the shop with it tucked under her arm.

"Hurry, we don't have much time," she said, "Do you hear that noise?"

Kristina paused and listened and in the distance, she did hear a faint roar. She looked at Faith.

"Is that the flood coming?"

Faith nodded.

"Yes, now take the dress and hurry," she said, "We must get out of here quickly."

Kristina looked around the empty boutique and snatched the dress, tucked it under her arm carefully and followed Faith. But the older woman grabbed her arm and urged her to run. They left the shop and saw their only exit down the street blocked by a huge wave of swirling water filled with debris.

Including a familiar looking pool table….

"Oh no, it must have hit Coleman's bar," Kristina said, "I hope he didn't drown."

Faith smiled.

"He's not enough of a sinner…now hurry we must go…"

"Where…?"

Faith thought quickly and pulled Kristina down an alley but the water cut off into different channels and the roar of the wave grew louder.

Kristina looked behind her.

"Hurry….it's coming closer."

Faith looked around and then her eyes brightened when she saw just what she needed up ahead.

A flight of stairs that had once been a fire escape…perfect, she thought.

"We need to climb the stairs…"

Kristina looked doubtful.

"But the wave is higher than the building."

They narrowly dodged a sign from the Haunted Star.

"Just come with me…"

Kristina shrugged and ran with Faith towards the staircase and they climbed up the metallic steps as quickly as they could but when they turned the bend, all of a sudden…Kristina felt the most peculiar sensation of floating and then when she stopped…

Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. She most definitely wasn't in PC anymore.

* * *

Alexis sighed as he tried her cell phone again, still no signal. She had hoped to call Coleman at his bar to ask him to go look for her daughters. She still hadn't seen any of them and people were beginning to look at her funny. She had just been about to get lucky she thought with Jerry when she mentioned rope play.

That had kind of ruined the moment.

He might be hot, he might be dangerous, and most likely was crazy to boot. But he also had no desire to be trussed up. Diane had been right about Jerry, he'd been all bark and no bite. What Alexis needed was a seriously lethal man who would surrender control to her. Someone whose body count was higher than her own, who wouldn't feel threatened by not being in charge.

Diane had coached her during one of their road trips that she had to take the bull by the horns, tie him up quickly and then something about…branding but she couldn't mean that literally of course. But then you never could tell with Diane.

Robin had baked more trays of fresh bread in five different flavors which were snatched up as quickly as they were set down. She took occasional breaks to speak into her decoder ring and people gave her a wide berth then.

Patrick hadn't shown yet up and Alexis doubted he would because Monica hadn't shown up either, in fact all the Qs were missing in action. But then maybe they were all eating takeout pizza inside Lila's old dungeon.

But Alexis remembered that Monica had an eye for younger, sexy men and she'd heard whispers that she'd been giving some tutoring to Patrick in a brand new specialty. Not that it was any of her business as she sidled to the table and grabbed a wedge of the garlic bread which smelled heavenly slathered with butter. With the alimony that Robin would get if she ever cut loose her cheating husband after she realized leopards didn't change their spots, she could open her own bakery shop. And call it something really original like Robin's Nest.

Then out of the corner of her eye she saw him, lurking close to the soup table, a mop and bucket in his hands, and she paid closer attention, while he set the bucket on the floor and dipped the mop inside of it.

"Who's he," she asked Robin.

The woman shrugged.

"He's some poor soul that needed something to do to take his mind off himself," she said, "So Alice put him to work."

Alexis studied the young, sturdy man with the dark hair and the intense concentration as if he were totally committed to the chore in front of him. He certainly exuded a certain brand of energy that attracted her attention.

"I don't remember seeing him around before."

Robin smiled.

"I've seen him around town on occasion," she said, "Maybe he has a summer home here."

Alexis sighed.

"Well he probably doesn't anymore," she said, "He'll be homeless like the rest of us after the flood waters recede."

Robin sighed.

"Oh Alexis, we need to turn that frown upside down," she said, "Yes things might look grim now but the sun will come out tomorrow and we will shine again."

Alexis looked at her, wondering whether she kept some of that happy grass in her decoder ring. If so, she really needed to pass it around.

Because the way she saw it, PC had just been wiped off the face of the earth. She had been on trial for murder, her daughters had run off without her and she really needed it bad.

So when Robin finally wandered off, she turned her attention back to the mysterious man mopping the floor.

* * *

Olivia boiled some water to prepare some hot chocolate and marshmallows for the kids so that they'd sit around while Max told them a story. Johnny Wonderful had entangled himself from Lulu's wild hairstyle to help her in the kitchen.

But as soon as their eyes met, they became tangled in each other's arms in a rush. She gasped when his hands reached under her blouse.

"Oh Johnny…I've needed you too long…"

"I know baby…I got my rocket in my pocket…."

She moved to unbuckle his pants to get her hands on it before the after burn scorched her when suddenly, they realized they weren't alone. Brenda had made her grand entrance and her subjects had all parted like the red sea, as she sauntered in the room with Sonny trailing behind her.

They had gotten in his rolls to take up to his summer estate up on the top of PC mountain but hadn't made it after it turned out that the rolls had been rigged to explode and they'd just barely escaped with their lives before it detonated showering them with debris and balls of flame.

Brenda wrapped her arms around her, longing for that strait jacket she'd called home for a couple missing years and Sonny just sighed at the hulk of burned out metal and knew he'd maxed out another insurance policy.

He had tried to soothe his rattled fiancée but she wouldn't be comforted. She just left him standing, muttering to himself as the flood waters threatened to bear down on them.

Fortunately Jax had been returning to town from his latest business trip and stopped his RV in front of them and waved at them to pile inside quickly. Sonny and her spent the short bumpy drive to the shelter sprawled on bean bag chairs and gazing at lava lamps while their new chauffeur sang along to Led Zeppelin

Jax had dropped them off to go rescue more people, and Brenda just glared at Sonny from beneath her halo of hair and waltzed off into the building.

Johnny Wonderful and Olivia didn't know the details because they'd been busy doing other things but the disentangled and welcomed the newcomers to go hit the soup line. Brenda just rolled her eyes and walked away

A pair of eyes watched her as she left the kitchen and then started to follow her.


	45. Chapter 45

Lulu had left Johnny Wonderful alone after he promised her he'd be helping serve soft drinks at the bar and she bumped into the man with the mop and bucket. He'd smiled up at her and since she found him handsome enough, they'd fallen into conversation.

"So you're a man of many talents," she asked, "an actor, artist and writer?"

Franco nodded.

"I'm still working on other careers like singing and architecture…but I did earn four out of five of my degrees working as an exotic dancer."

That intrigued Lulu because she did have that naughty side of her she showed to so few people who either thought she was a goody two shoes because she favored wholesome blouses and poodle skirts or thought she was psycho like her mother.

"What do you do sweet Lulu?"

She drew a blank because she really hadn't gotten started with her life yet. She'd dropped out of high school, hadn't attended a day of college at PCU and she'd only sort of worked as a fashion designer because that chick Kate who used to hang around town mooning over Sonny had gotten her the job. Her father had teased her about working as a dealer on his floating casino called the Haunted Star but so far she had come up with excuses not to take the job.

Working with him given his past would ruin her reputation with the Junior League, which still hadn't selected its debutantes for its upcoming ball later this year. Johnny Wonderful had told her not to stress about it, to just go with the flow and to keep those tuna casseroles coming for him at the end of the day. She didn't mind cooking for him because he was just so sweet so…wonderful…the way he had given Liz the job cleaning his apartment especially his bedroom of any dust bunnies that might be lurking there. Okay, so the skimpy French Maid outfit had her a little concerned at first but she so trusted Johnny Wonderful with her heart, her soul just like she would have with her virginity if she hadn't thrown it away on some loser guy.

Franco just watched her and she wondered if he read her thoughts right now. He had such a penetrating gaze and something about him…this couldn't be about trying to get her to retreat with him into some darkened corner where they could go at it like rabbits to prove to each other that they weren't dead.

After all, during the tornado that had knocked the marquee off of Jax's hotel, some guy, Patrick was it had convinced her that they had to get down and dirty in the maid's dressing room because it might be their last night on earth. But the tornado hadn't taken PC with it and a new day had dawned, most of the important people still lived and she told herself she'd never fall for that line again. But she couldn't deny that Franco looked handsome in a bohemian renaissance guy kind of way, usually not her thing but something about his eyes beckoned to her.

"So what brought you to PC?"

Franco sighed, adjusting his mop.

"A failed experiment," he said, "no wait my agent said that it would diversify my resume…oh wait a minute okay…no I'm here because I have some unfinished agenda against one of the denizens of this fine town."

Lulu looked hopefully.

"It it me?"

Franco looked puzzled.

"I don't know my darling," he said, "But would you like us to go some place, crack a bottle of wine and sip away until we both figured it out?"

Lulu bit her lip that sounded tempting. And besides, Johnny oh so Wonderful needed to miss her a little bit.

"I…"

Then a loud booming voice sounded.

"What did I tell you about not wanting any slackers," Alice said, "Now get back to work before I show you what happens to them."

Franco blinked his eyes.

"All right, all right…I'm off my ten and back to work."

Alice just shook her head and gazed over at Lulu.

"Slackers…and what about you miss, we need a body in the dessert line."

Lulu just followed Alice in the kitchen knowing never to argue with the woman who had been entrusted by Lila in her will to look after her personal dungeon.

* * *

Alexis had watched the whole exchange between the enigmatic man with the mop and that troll up Lulu. The daughter of the man who called her by her hated name Natasha and a woman who spent her days staring at four walls named Luke. The one who had tried and so far failed to corrupt her daughter Kristina with her appalling style in clothing and her wanton ways with men…old enough to be her older brothers. Honestly, Niklos was the only normal offspring of Laura and that had to be because Luke hadn't been his father.

Then again Stavros had been certifiably nuts both alive and later jumpstarted by Helena as part of some dastardly plot that had pushed the once proud Cassadine family closer into parody. Alexis wondered what had ever happened to Helena but then again you never knew when the stepmother from some icy hell would pop up to commit mayhem and murder. She half expected to see her show up here at some point, fashionably late of course.

Diane caught up with her.

"Where you been," she said, "What happened with the trial?"

Alexis folded her arms.

"Like you care…running off like you did after getting yourself kicked off my case."

Diane shrugged.

"I had to go run…an errand and you know I needed to spend that extra time with Max."

Alexis just looked at her so-called friend. Really how could she even argue that keeping her lover trussed up and tickling him with chocolate laden feathers was nearly as critical as keeping Alexis from going to the guillotine?

And why was every woman in PC getting some except for her? But then Jerry had slithered back up to her from the shadows and she'd sent him packing.

She saw Alice looking at her suddenly and knew it was time to head back to the soup line.

* * *

Sam clung onto Jason as the floodwater whipped them down some of PC's better looking real estate.

"Isn't that the Q mansion?"

The formidable mansion passed by quickly as both she and Jason struggled to survive the rushing flood water that had swept them off their feet and nearly sucked them underneath into the watery grave.

Jason just blinked his eyes.

She melted at the sight of him and decided that if the flood was going to wipe them off the PC canvas that they would make each final moment with each other count. She felt her horniness return in a rush as she kissed him as they bobbed together at the crest of the tide.

"Oh god…blurb…I got to…blurb blurb…have you now."

She fought to say those words each time the undertow threatened to suck her under and out of his tight embrace. She wrapped her legs around him and kissed him harder, words suddenly not necessary only passion.

"Sam…"

Did he just utter her name above the roar of the waters? She felt her body grow warm and she squeezed him tighter feeling so turned on by the threat of death, destruction and the buildup in her loins of what their final moments on earth could be like.

She felt him kiss her back or it felt like it and she ground her tongue in between his lips to taste him for that last time. Their clothes were so soaked; they clung to their bodies like second skin. So for the moment, they had to rely on their mouths to express their undying love. After all, Jason had finally dumped Lollypop Liz and her brood to come back to her. Enough time had passed for him to restore his credit lines so all would have been perfect in their world.

Until the damn flood…but they had to make the most of the time that remained. Then she heard a voice that sounded like angels in heaven.

"Sam…Jas…what are you doing out here?"

She thought maybe it had been the angel wondering if she and Jason had taken a wrong turn and wound up at the pearly gates and not in a warmer climate. But then she'd only killed a few people and slept with her mother's men….on PC's list of sinners, that wouldn't even get her in the top ten.

But the voice resounded, splitting the air again and this time she recognized.

"Jax…is that really you?"

"What…?"

She returned to Jason.

"Oh nothing baby…just keep kissing me…"

But Jax kept calling from somewhere that sounded closer and closer and she finally saw him extending lying on a surfboard tied someplace with a rope and extending his hand as they neared him.

Robin sat next to her rows of cooling bread wondering where Patrick had gone. Emma had finally stopped acting so fussy when Robin had blew some pixie dust from her decoder ring. But still no sign of her husband anywhere.

She'd heard the gossip, she heard the rumors that Patrick had been cooling his heels with women all over PC and she didn't believe any of it! Okay maybe he'd been a carousing hound with questionable taste in women when they first clashed but he'd just been waiting for the right woman to come along.

The one who could change him into the doting husband and father he'd become since they hooked up. First of all the story about him and Liz couldn't be true because her body would crack in half from the weight of a man and Olivia, no she was too busy getting her claws into Johnny Wonderful.

The rumors that Diane had Patrick tied up in her bed just sounded ludicrous because Patrick didn't go for kink even when Robin hinted to him that she liked being paddled on occasion.

So where the hell was he? And she felt her hormones shift into gear again, molding and shaping her serene demeanor into something else. The woman who had cooked such delicious bread and had patted many shoulders to offer some comfort had disappeared and had been replaced by someone else. Her blood boiled inside of her arteries and veins, her skin prickled and underneath it, she felt her body stretch.

And everyone around her had just better watch out…because her alter was back and it tasted blood.


	46. Chapter 46

Liz just pushed Johnny Wonderful off of her when he slunk up behind her in the pantry, adjacent to the kitchen. She'd been there looking for the right spices to mix together with the right vintage of wine to create the emergency antiserum to treat some guy's bite.

Some nerdy looking dude who called himself the Jackal or some strange nickname like that…but Liz had learned beginning in her correspondence nursing program courses to not question her patients on personal matters. She didn't know who had taught that course; just that it hadn't been Nurse Amy. She did hear that he also went by Spinelli so she just called him that to keep her face straight.

But she couldn't deny the bite looked very strange, the teeth marks like nothing she'd ever seen and the redness that had begun to already spread…almost as if an infection had taken root. But how could that happen in a matter of minutes that was like impossible wasn't it?

Then it didn't help Liz in her efforts to save his life that he didn't know what bit him. He'd been walking in the hallway to the bathroom to help coordinate the lines to use them when suddenly; he'd turned the corner and had been ambushed from behind by a strong person.

The claws had dug into him as out of the corner of his beady eye, he saw the silhouette of a figure bite into his arm.

Then as quickly as it had done that, it scampered off in near silence, with a whoosh of warm air in its wake…and he just sat there bewildered until Lulu found him while she was searching for Johnny Wonderful and took pity on his prone figure.

Liz had worked mightily to save him but the redness kept spreading and not knowing what she was dealing with, she considered quarantining him in case another mysterious virus had ripped loose from its haven and set out to reduce PC's population by a couple of people on their way out anyway.

So anyway, her search for a cure had led her to the pantry because it wasn't like they'd taken refuge in a hospital complete with all kinds of gadgets, medications and examination tables. Oh the conditions she had to face, she felt she had to channel the energies of her father, Jeff who had been for the most part a horn dog but had been known to cure a patient or two.

But as she raced back to her patient after grabbing an armful of bottles, a corkscrew and a toilet plunger she just didn't know if there'd be enough time as the clock ticked the seconds away on the wall.

Johnny Wonderful tried to keep up with her, wondering why she wasn't wearing her French maid outfit but he wound up eating her dust.

* * *

Alexis watched Liz race to try to save the guy whose main contribution to the canvas was that he'd sold her some happy grass when she'd needed it. Not that he wasn't cute in his own underdeveloped way but he just didn't permeate with that air of danger that was so fundamental for every relationship.

But maybe he'd be perfect for Kristina, wherever she had taken herself. Leave it to her inconsiderate daughter to not keep her mother abreast during a crisis. If she was off joyriding with her troublesome half brother in his corvette she would be so grounded.

Molly, Alexis had thought of her several times but just figured that someone had taken her in because she was so cute with her rosy cheeks and dimples when she smiled. Her flaxen hair so orderly woven into twin braids and her nice dresses with those tap shoes she'd taken to wearing lately.

Of course, there was that tendency she'd shown lately to mutilate her dollies but Alexis felt pretty sure that was a passing phase. But something irked at her anyway, something about her daughter's focus on the eyes as the target of her surgical skills. Oh well, she'd figure it out later when she had time.

"Hey Alexis, you're needed to help with cleaning up a spill in the pantry."

She groaned and just threw Olivia a look like did she really have to because clearly that was busy work for people who had nothing going on in their lives. Not people like her who had a packed schedule filled with a murder trial, raising three daughters, keeping a clean house, running a busy legal practice and keeping an ex-husband in line.

Oh wait, these days it was mostly her murder trial but everything else would just have to wait until she got herself vindicated.

Where was her attorney anyway when she needed her?

Alexis went into the kitchen and saw that Franco character there standing there waiting for her to help him. He was a young buck, definitely a plus, supposed to be a man of many interests and talents, another plus.

But most importantly, he exuded a sense of edginess and danger, which drew her to him like quick.

"Alexis…a nice surprise…"

She batted her eyes at him.

"Likewise…"

"Would you care to join me in cleaning up this mess?"

She just twittered as she stood there watching him, place the mop in the bucket and then squeeze it out, dripping water into it.

It just mesmerized her but then Jerry had that effect on her and look what happened with him.

In fact, wasn't that him wearing the trench coat standing nearby watching both of them.

"Psssst…Alexis darling…"

She saw that Jerry was beckoning to her and that just ticked her off, not to mentioning how it turned her on. So she moved closer to him.

"What Jerry," she said, "Now hurry because I've got an important job to do."

He sighed.

"You can't go near him…"

"Who…you mean Franco…he's harmless…just look at him."

They both watched Franco nearly trip over the bucket as Alice stood there berating him.

"It's all looks," he said, "He's not what he appears to be."

She snorted.

"From you…that's just priceless Jerry…Craig…Terrorist number three or whatever the hell your name is."

Jerry's nostrils flared and she knew that in the past her verbal ranting had served as excellent foreplay for them before he took her on top of a messy desk or some other sordid location.

But now his eyes flashed in warning and she didn't get it at all. After all, he'd been a cold blooded killer himself but she had later asked her shrink if that had been part of his appeal.

"I'm not kidding Alexis…you must stay away from him," he said, "or you'll regret it."

She folded her arms.

"Jerry is that a threat, a warning or a form of verbal fair play," she said, "I can never tell with you."

His eyebrows rose.

"That's why it's so incredible between us," he said, "No matter what you think of me now, we always had our special time together."

She shook her head at him.

"You made a play for my daughter like every other man in my life."

She turned around to leave him and head back to Franco who as far as she knew hadn't yet slept with Sam.

Jerry just watched her go in frustration as she returned to the man who Jerry knew had brought an agenda of murder and mayhem in GH.

In other words, he'd poached on his territory and he didn't much like that.

* * *

Jax pulled Sam and Jason out of the roaring rapids that had swept through the upper crust neighborhood in PC, showing that it recognized no class boundaries. He had looked towards the Q mansion but it looked deserted.

Sam jumped all over Jax like a puppy, wrapping her arms and legs around him, pressing her wet body against his own. Jason just shook himself out not paying attention to anything but making sure his hair dried just right.

Jax gently peeled his former lover off of him.

"Sam…why were you out here in the flood? Didn't you pay attention to the sirens?"

She just looked at him blankly, trying to pull her pants up but they weren't cooperating.

"Do you like have some gum?"

Jax just looked at her and then turned to Jason.

"Are you going to be able to hike back to high ground to my van?"

Jason nodded because there wasn't anything he couldn't do and so he took Sam's hand and they followed Jax up to where he'd parked his van. He opened the back doors so the two of them could plop onto the beanbag chairs.

"You like Fleetwood Mac?"

Sam looked at him and shrugged.

"I guess so…wow this is some set up Jax," she said, "It's so hot and so retro."

She looked at the poster of Rick Springfield on the van right next to the lava lamps and the beaded curtains, which led to a bed with a tie-dyed spread. She smiled knowing if she played her cards right, she and Jason could make good use of that bed while Jax drove them around what was left of PC.

"So where's the shelter," Jason asked.

Jax driving up front just shrugged.

"I heard there's a building that's being used as a mobile emergency unit," he said, "but I don't know who's in charge of it."

Jason and Sam looked at each other.

"We'd better get headed there," Jason said.

Sam pouted and caressed his chest through the wet polyester.

"Oh Jas…I thought we'd have a little time alone together first," she said, "To…you know."

Jason sighed.

"Sam, we've got to get to higher ground in case there's more rogue waves out there."

Jax agreed.

"Could be some great surfing out there, but I've been out rescuing people to earn good karma points."

Jason paused and then nodded.

"Do you have a cell phone," he said, "Mine's in the flood somewhere."

Jax reached and handed one back to him. Sam looked at Jason puzzled.

"Who you calling Jas..?"

He started punching buttons.

"Liz…find out where she's at so we can meet up."

Sam's face snarled.

"Oh know you don't," she said, "You're mine now and we're going to get married and…"

Jason just stared at her holding the phone to his ear but he couldn't get a response.

"She's busy saving lives not thinking about getting it on Sam," he said, "So we need to do the same thing until this disaster is over."

Her face became contorted.

"You can't mean it Jas," she said, "I go to have my cuddling...in fact if I don't have you right now…"

But Jason had been serious about his pledge of celibacy until after the emergency had concluded and nothing that Sam said or did was going to dissuade him.

Sam of course didn't take that one lying down like she'd taken him. As she sank into her beanbag, her brain began to formulate a plan.

If he thought he was going to thwart their passion, he had another thing coming as the van narrowly avoided sliding down into the roaring river.


	47. Chapter 47

Liz stood in front of everyone who had congregated in front of her to listen to her pressing announcement. She looked out nervously at the motley crowd of saints, sinners and the undead who held their collective breaths to hear what she had to say to them.

Clearing her throat didn't help so she asked Robin to get her a shot of tequila and after gulping it down, she found that indeed courage could be bottled up.

"Ladies…gentlemen…I have something urgent to tell you…"

Everyone waited expectantly for her to finish but she just scanned the crowd with her eyes, it had grown much louder since she'd issued her last news brief that the national guard would be called out to restore order to PC.

"I have decided to place the rec room under a strict quarantine…now there's nothing to panic about, nothing that is dangerous or deadly but a young man has an infection resulting from a bite of unknown origin."

Mayhem broke out then as people got up and started scampering to the doorways to flee what they believed to be another plague striking on the shores of of their town from someplace else.

Then at the back of the room, a whip cracked and a hundred head spun around to see Alice standing there holding a very expensive leather whip with a monogrammed handle that didn't bear her own initials.

"Enough of that, you will all cease with your hysteria and sit down at once to finish listen to what Liz is telling you."

The crowd looked at the doorway and they looked at Alice and in unison everyone sat down. Alice sighed, satisfied before handing the whip back to its rightful owner.

"Thank you for your assistance."

Diane tucked it back in her belt.

"No problem…glad to be of help."

She and others turned to listen to Liz continue her announcement.

"Like I told you, there's really no need to panic," she said, "It's been…contained to one person and there's no signs it's spreading…yet…so if you just sit down, take some deep cleansing breaths and Robin will start handing out some mugs of homemade hot cocoa."

Robin piped up.

"Marshmallows included."

The people got up to line up for the cocoa which Robin went to prepare in the kitchen. She reached into her fanny pack and pulled out a package, pouring the contents into the huge vat of boiling water to be used for the beverage.

Mac looked over at her and raised his eyebrows and she smiled back at him, stirring in the chocolate.

"Just something to relax people and put smiles on their faces."

He nodded and then moved on to the next item on his disaster preparedness list. Robin asked some of the students from the local high school to get cups, glasses, mugs or whatever they could find for people to drink from. She figured she might as well as put the nameless students to work right away because they'd probably wind up being fodder for some unforeseen tragedy further along in the disaster.

The man with the mop, Franco something or another came by carrying a copy of Iliad over to the table. Robin smiled at him sweetly.

"Would you like to take a taste," she said, "and tell me what you think."

He looked at her with those piercing eyes and shrugged. She poured the frothy liquid in a mug for him and he took a sip. He made a face.

"Needs more xanax."

He put the mug down and wandered off and Robin just shook her head. It wasn't xanax she had put in there, she would never drug anyone, she had just used this magical substance that grew from a plant that Casey the Alien had left her when he returned back to his spaceship during some vaguely remembered period of her childhood.

But a long siege lay ahead as the flood waters had yet to stop spilling through the streets, had yet to recede back away from the buildings. She had to do her part to keep it all together, to keep the refugees from panicking and to make sure the tables were stacked with plenty of loaves of her freshly baked bread.

* * *

Alexis just couldn't believe what she had just heard. Liz had interrupted her efforts to save the boy who sold Alexis some happy grass to announce to everyone that there'd be just a little itty bitty quarantine. No one was in any danger, she told everyone and then called some young people to help her take bubble wrap and surround the rec room with it before sealing it off with what looked like duct tape.

What was really going on here? Had another plague seized the town in its icy grip? Did the fingerprints on it belong to a Cassadine? She had so many questions but they'd have to wait because she had to remind someone that as bad as the disaster might have looked, it paled in comparison to the crises she faced in her own life. Her own trials would put the PC flood in its proper perspective surely, and then she had to figure out where Jerry had wanted to meet her.

He had whispered the location in her ear in passing before stroking her face with promises of mindblowing sex on some horizontal surface somewhere but then before she could ask him for clarification, the cad vanished.

And Alexis knew he was indeed a cad, she just didn't care not when her loins burned for some serious action that had been lacking in her life for too long. Not just any man would do, it only worked if the man wore edgy and badness like a cloak around his perfectly sculpted body.

Maybe she should go look for him, just to make sure he hadn't stepped outside for some air and got swept away by some rapids. But then a familiar woman, too much so blocked her path.

"Julia, what are you doing here?"

Her twin sister just glared at her.

"I'm here leading the operations of course," she said, "I just composed a list of chores for everyone to perform to earn their keep here."

Alexis blinked her eyes.

"What are you talking about," she said, "This is an evacuation center, not a commune."

Julia just looked like she had no patience with her.

"I assigned you a chore and please Alexis, don't embarrass me by being one of those freeloaders who just lies around wailing about their pathetic lives while others wait on them."

Alexis thought that sounded like a plan. Much better than standing behind a table ladling out soup to people including those who lived on the wrong side of the waterfront.

"Surely you can't be serious."

Julia sighed.

"Damn straight," she said, "Really I don't know what happened to you, how you grew up so spoiled, so overindulged. When's the last time you thought of someone besides yourself?"

Alexis tried to think and drew a blank but seriously how could she be expected to think of others when her own life was in such crisis? She had two…no three daughters and none of them had washed up here. And give people enough time before the busybodies began to notice that she hadn't even started looking for them or even asked if anybody had seen them.

Their pictures didn't hang on the wall of missing PC folks complete with their vital stats and contact numbers. Yes, she had thought of them and maybe, she'd ask Mac to do something…like put out an APB to find them…after she found out what Jerry had planned for her. Her blood heated up at the thought that right now, he waited for her to come find him.

"Where are your children Alexis," Julia said, "Do you even know where they are?"

Alexis just looked at her, her lips quivering. She felt trapped by her twin sister into being forced to admit that she had no clue where they might be. But her body tugged her towards the back of the building where she felt Jerry must be.

"Listen are you going anywhere with this," she said, "to try to paint me as the evil twin, the bad seed when we both dropped off of the same poisonous tree."

Julia paused at that assessment of their family heritage but she never stayed quiet for long.

"Alexis…could you just for five seconds not make every tragedy, be it natural disaster, terrorist attack, hostage situation, exotic viral epidemic, alien invasion about yourself?"

Alexis just looked at her puzzled but her libido got the better of her.

"See you later," she said, "got to go…now."

Julia just shook her head as she saw her lesser half sprint towards the hallway.

* * *

Brenda felt incredibly bored, because there was only so many coats of nail polish she could put on her fingers and her toes including the protective coat that would prevent them from chipping the next time she had to hold onto Sonny.

He had left her as soon as they'd been rescued and had gone off to find out what happened to Jason. She had rolled her eyes thinking that all her fiance cared about was his former business partner and confidante who was probably off screwing that little Brenda wannabe harlot named Sam. God, how low rent could Jason go by hanging out with the likes of her?

Brenda sniffed as Robin tried to give her a mug of hot chocolate. Instead she reached into her leather purse and pulled out her own private flask of whiskey. She needed her fortitude in a bottle since she'd left her pills in the limo before it had erupted in a ball of flames before being swept away by the flood waters.

Eying her from across the room had been Carly who Brenda considered just so much trailer trash like her low-rent mama Bobbie. They'd been making dagger eyes since Carly had started hanging around her former ex Sonny again. Yes, she was supposed to be Jax's one and only bride right now but it seemed clear enough to Brenda that Carly had designs on Sonny again.

Well she just couldn't have him because he belonged to her now.

They had kept to their separate corners but both knew it would only be a matter of time before they couldn't control their possessiveness over Sonny any longer and they'd tear each other apart in the middle of the crowd of people.

The tension in the room became so thick that it couldn't be ignored but it diverted people's attention away from the quarantined area. Liz walked out of the cordoned off area, fatigue lining her face. Lulu came and gave her a glass of something stronger than water.

Liz sipped it and then nodded. Lulu looked at her with worried eyes.

"Are we all going to get what he has," she said, "Are we all going to die here?"

Liz just rubbed her forehead as she searched her mind for answers and the room for Jason. He hadn't arrived yet clearly which annoyed Liz because that meant he was with Sam. The girl was so clueless she'd be doing the bump and grind with him as some wall of water rushed them out through the high rent district.

She sighed, well someday Jason would come to his senses and return to her.

Alexis wandered down yet another hallway, who would have guessed there were so many inside one brownstone? But she hadn't located Jerry and she knew he had to be hiding someplace waiting for her.

Just then, she felt her foot catch on a lump on the ground and when she looked down, her eyes widened.

There lay the body of a young female high school student, her mouth frozen in a scream and her eyes ripped out.

She stiffened at the sight and then a disturbing thought wafted into her brain, when she remembered something about Molly's dolls.

What had it been again?

Then she stepped over the prone body and continued looking for Jerry.


	48. Chapter 48

Kristina looked around her, her eyes widening with each sight she took in as she surveyed the area around her. The street looked almost like the main thoroughfare in PC proper yet…something, everything looked so different. She saw people walking down the streets wearing tied dyed shirts and god, were those bell bottoms? That made her recoil almost in horror. She glanced over at Faith who seemed unperturbed by the fact that everything around them looked like where they had left yet….it all looked so different.

A waft of what smelted suspiciously like her mother's favorite brand of happy grass reached her nose and she saw what looked like a military recruitment poster on the wall of one faded building painted in a plethora of colors. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the serious looking man with the crew cut hair and a military uniform almost as if she recognized him…

"Coleman?"

Oh god, it couldn't be him. It had to be some kind of insane look alike. Faith kept walking silently so she did too heading towards what looked like a disco.

"These were all the rage," Faith said, "before my time of course."

Somehow Kristina doubted that. The woman who had decided to mentor her just looked ageless somehow. She looked over and saw a preppy looking couple walking hand in hand looking so happy. The woman looked like a teenager with thick blond hair spilling over her shoulders and apple-cheeked, while the guy had short blond hair and looked preppy like a lawyer. Kristina thought they looked vaguely familiar…oh wait, they were the prom king and queen at PC High like 100 years ago or so it seemed.

"Who are they?"

Faith brushed her hand in disdain.

"Oh they just got engaged but they won't last," she said, "He's too clean cut for her and she's got her eye on someone else…naughty girl."

Kristina couldn't take her eyes off of them but did finally look at Faith.

"Where are we," she said, "I mean I know this is PC but it isn't."

Faith's eyes gleamed at the young girl's confusion.

"Oh but it is sweetie," she said, "It's the town before it all went to hell.

That confused Kristina because of all the thoughts she had about the town that had birthed and raised her when her mother wasn't around, she wouldn't describe it as hell. Boring, and pathetic and filled with losers maybe but she didn't think it was hell…but then again, looking at it now through a hazy afterglow seeing how happy everyone appeared to be with Turn, Turn, Turn playing in the background, she could see the contrast.

She turned to Faith.

"Oh so what happened to change it," she said, "to what it is now?"

Faith took a deep breath.

"So many different things, actions that had consequences, words that had double meaning and one central figure with crazy looking hair and no taste in clothes."

Christina frowned because that could describe quite a few people including her own mother.

"So why then are we here?"

Faith sighed, the gleam in her eye glowing as her skin started to shimmer.

"I think we'll soon find that out…."

Then Kristina's eyes widened as she saw the little boy romping down the street, dressed in preppy clothes and wearing a wholesome look.

"Jason…?"

Faith nodded.

"Oh what a difference a few years and a good knock to the head make for one of PC's more tortured souls."

Kristina just couldn't believe she'd ever see that hunk of a man anywhere where he didn't pack a gun. Maybe this reality wasn't all good…maybe the changes that shook the canvas had been for the better…at least some of them.

But then Faith's talon brushed her shoulder and the woman whispered that it was time to keep moving…as the fog began to billow around them blocking out the sunlight.

* * *

Alexis just wanted to strangle him when she saw him standing in shadow inside the deserted office until desire took over. Only one desk carved from the finest Oak trees stood between us and that wouldn't be for long. Vaguely she heard some commotion including a piercing scream come from the hallway behind her but she didn't care.

She just knew she wanted him right here, right now and nothing else mattered. Her daughters, they'd turn up as they always did. Mac, well he'd be busy trying to straighten his crazy ex, Felicia the vagabond who never spent any time with her daughters.

"Alexis darling…are you going to stand there looking delectable all night?"

She shivered when he spoke to her in his soothing seductive tone…all rationale threatened to leave her and her body melt, she just couldn't hide it anymore, her raging feelings for the bad boy in front of her.

"Jerry…you came back for me?"

His eyes furrowed.

"Yeah well, I had some things I had to take care of but yeah…sure baby you were on the list."

"The top of it…?"

"Yes of course…now get your bad girl self over here," he said, "We've got a desk to christian with some delicious memories."

She sidled on over there, her skin burning for the man who'd sear it with his mouth in ways that would remain with her forever. He wrapped his arms around her and lowered his mouth on hers, suckling her lips gently at first and then with greater fervor. Within seconds, they fell on the desk, ripping their clothes off.

"Oh god…Jerry I can't believe this is really happening…"

He slurped on her neck.

"Oh yeah baby…I'm right here giving it to you…"

The desk began to creak as they writhed on top of it as if it were the last day on earth and perhaps for PC, it might be with all the crises stacking up on top of each other.

* * *

Outside and down the hallway, a serious faced Mac knelt below the prone body of the dead high school student. Such heinous murders involving this demographic were endemic in PC lately and Mac still didn't know why. And all of them had been left eyeless, which he didn't get either. Was that like an important sign that he needed to play close attention to, he scratched his head wondering.

Liz came running up to him with her flare gun and retractors.

"You need me to operate?"

Mac looked up at her gravely.

"It's too late for that," he said, "I might need you to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death."

She nodded and dug into her bag for her coroner gear.

"We might need to do it some place with a flat surface," she said, "the kitchen's full so what about an office?"

Mac nodded.

"There's plenty of empty ones around here," he said, "any one of them should do."

Liz sighed, looking down at the pretty young girl who no doubt had been a cheerleader.

"So who do you think did such a despicable act?"

Mac shook his head.

"I don't know…the killer strikes relentlessly yet doesn't leave much in the way of clues."

Liz shook her head.

"I'll have to get started at once," she said, "the quarantine's under control now."

Jason and Sam rushed up to Mac and Liz where they were with the dead body. Sam hitched up her pants and clung to Jason.

"What happened Mac?"

The commissioner looked up at them.

"A young woman has been brutally murdered," he said, "Jason, I'm going to need a statement of your whereabouts."

Sam folded her arms.

"Mac…he was with me the entire time," she said, "the two of us nearly drowned to death when the dam broke."

Mac shrugged.

"Standard procedure, you know he's the obvious suspect in most of PC's homicides even if he doesn't have time to do them all."

Jason just looked at both of them blankly, his jaw flexed.

"I can do that."

Sam just looked at him.

"Jas…don't say anything," she said, "Mac's trying to set you up for the fall…don't say anything without a lawyer…I'll go find my mother. She's got to be around here somewhere."

Mac sighed.

"Yes she was working in the soup line but she's wandered off again and that could be very dangerous."

Sam's eyes widened.

"Oh well then…Jas…we'd better get going."

His eyes blinked suddenly.

"Why?"

She smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist and nibbling on his neck.

"Because Sami's feeling a bit frisky, from escaping death," she said, "We need to do the whole life reaffirming thing right now."

Jason just stood there and she tugged on his arm.

"Jas…let's go…"

Diana breezed in and just shook her head as Max followed her.

"No you can't be tied up and flogged right now darling," she said, "You know I'll make it up to you later."

Mac just looked up at both of them as Sam finally coaxed Jason into moving. Diane's eyes flashed.

"Max…later…"

Diane and Max continued down the hallway…while behind them lurked a man who Mac thought looked a bit familiar. Dark hair and a goatee, not to mention a glimmer in his eye. Hadn't he been straight off the registrar of serial killers at one point? Franco, wasn't that his name? Jack of all trades who had no doubt taken time off of his busy multi-tasking schedule to drop into PC at the most inopportune time to stir up some trouble.

Could he be behind the killings…or would that be too obvious?

Mac just shook his head, wondering if retirement weren't an option for him at this point.

* * *

Lulu licked the lollypop that Robin had found for her after dipping it in some mysterious concoction that she'd whipped up. That calmed her down a little bit because though she adored Johnny Wonderful, he was beginning to worry her. He had asked her a minute ago as she sat at the table where Brooklyn had gone and she didn't know or care for that matter.

She hadn't had any Georgie sightings for a while so she'd begun to just relax while she watched Alice drafting Maxie to sorting out through the sleeping bags that would be used for hunkering down for some necessary shuteye.

"May I have a cookie?"

Lulu broke her thoughts away and saw a young girl with her hair in tight braids looking up at her with earnest eyes.

"Oh Molly, I'm sure Robin can find you some to eat," she said, "Have you been here by yourself you poor thing?"

Molly shrugged.

"I was playing with my dolly," she said, "but I'm hungry now."

Lulu looked in her hand and saw what looked like an ice pack.

"Molly honey, does your mother know you're running around with sharp objects?"

Molly shrugged again.

."Mommy busy with bad man," she said, "Daddy not here."

Lulu sighed.

"What about your sisters?"

Molly just smiled widely, looking like an angel, Lulu thought. Oh the innocence of the young even in the midst of a crisis.

"Here I'll take you to Robin and she can get you something to eat," Lulu said, getting off the table.

Molly followed her into the kitchen, the ice pick still firmly in her hand. Her eyes met those of Franco who had returned to mopping the floor and he felt inside of him, a deep chilly wind blow through him.

Then Alice slapped him in the head with a dish rag and he returned to his work.


	49. Chapter 49

Sam loved Jas with all her heart at least she believed she did, ever since she'd fallen out of Sonny's bed after his umpteenth reconciliation with Carly. It didn't hurt that the enforcer had endless lines of credit at all of PC's boutiques which sold the hottest threads and that if he needed to get a card extended, all he had to do was walk into the store toting his twin guns, his face frozen in menace and it always got extended.

And now that he had sworn eternal devotion to her and they were to be married, she knew that nothing would stand in her way of landing the perfect wedding outfit. No, not even the fact that PC had become submerged after a major flood and a series of crisis had rocked the evacuation center would interrupt that quest. But she didn't get this latest change in her groom to be. He had decided to deprive himself of all pleasures including those of the flesh. Yes, she thought she had heard him mumble something to that effect while they had been bobbing like apples in the swirling flood waters but she had just been rubbing against him like a cat in heat and he hadn't succumbed to her charms.

Now she was starting to get worried. She just couldn't live without having him against every hard surface, vertical or horizontal in PC proper. Even as the flood water had tightened her bodice even further, she still couldn't entice him to follow her into a dark closet somewhere to do the whole life reaffirming deal.

Then to top it all off, Mac the town's loser of a commissioner who had been trying to thaw off her ice queen of a mother had made insinuations that Jason had committed another murder, this time the coed who had been found in the hallway, her eyes ripped from their sockets. Really, she had just told Mac that Jas was innocent because he had been with her struggling to survive in the midst of the flood. She had thought that averring that to Mac would melt Jason's resolve not to hit the sheets. But so far…she just sighed and as it often did in situations like this, her eyes began to wander.

She caught the man with the mop, lathering it in a bucket of what must be soapy water and sweeping it across the floor. His rhythm, near perfection, and she felt herself become captivated by him and his simple action of cleaning the floor. Who was he, and why did within her did she feel her loins start to burn?

Jason didn't notice, he was too busy scanning the room looking for Sonny or so she thought. Then she caught him looking at Liz who was bent over tending to a male patient with a stapler and a tuning fork while Maxie assisted her.

Oh god, Sam thought, no, he wasn't going to fall for Lollypop Liz again was he? Not after she had landed him back in her fervent embrace after all this time and not after they had just survived the horrendous flood.

Then she caught the man holding the mop looking back at her intently. Who was he again, and why did he look familiar?

She just looked at Jason whose gaze remained frozen on watching Liz save a life so she hitched up her pants to go chat up the man checking her out.

* * *

Brooklyn lay tied up in the basement where the man with the goatee, Franco what's his name, had left her. She had hoped he would return and do deliciously wicked things to her while she remained at his mercy, tugging against the ropes. She'd never really been into the whole bondage deal but once at the Q mansion, she had been playing hide and seek with the other teens during one of those happening parties they usually threw there on some dark stormy night. She had needed a place to hide that was so clever no one would ever find her so she had gone into the kitchen and instead of hiding out there, she had turned the knob on a door and looked down onto a darkened staircase. She flipped the switch and it remained dimly lit, so she decided to do some more exploring and so she held the banister as she walked down the creaky steps.

In the hopes of finding the ultimate hiding place but what she found instead, her eyes widened at the sight.

It looked like a dungeon or torture chamber of some type and thoughts of hiding from her friends slipped from her head as she became more focused on checking out the elaborate devices she found down there, ropes, chains and were those torture racks like out of the medieval ages? Part of her felt like running back up the steps in horror but another side of her felt intrigued by what she saw and the headiness of danger and discovery stirred something deep inside of her.

She remembered that time now as she remained tied up after the eccentric man had left her there to do what he promised, which was to create mayhem in this fair city. She had hoped he'd spend more time down here showing her what he could do with her.

Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shimmery fog that slowly took human form and looked like…her eyes widened.

"Georgie…?"

The figure came more sharply into view and indeed resembled the beloved ingénue who had her life snuffed out so brutally.

"What are you doing here anyway," Brooklyn said, "You're supposed to be dead."

Georgie just looked at her with such sadness and Brooklyn didn't know why.

"You must all escape this building," Georgie said, "or you will die…"

Brooklyn felt taken aback at the warning.

"Georgie…we can't…if we go outside, we'll all drown in the flood," she said, "and besides I've been tied up by this Franco guy and I'm not sure when he'll be back down here."

Georgie's face turned paler if that were even possible.

"No…"

"Oh yeah…he said he had a lot of things to do before he comes back and plays with me."

Georgie shook her head, her flaxen curly locks shaking.

"No…you must get away from him right now," she said, "He is not a good man. He's evil."

Brooklyn just couldn't believe that, sure he'd tied her up and left her but that had just made her tingle all over.

"But he's kind of cute…and I haven't had a boyfriend in a while."

Georgie just shook her head at how much that had resembled her own sad life and then she started to fade away once again, leaving Brooklyn there still tied up.

* * *

Alexis straightened out her outfit after she and Jerry had released each other, it had been like old times between them but she didn't want it to get out that she'd cavorted with him because after all, she was still on trial for murder. He just gazed at her, that satisfied grin on his face as he pulled up his pants.

"Ah…my darling…that will have to last us for a while."

She tilted her face looking at him.

"Running off again already?"

He shrugged.

"I can't hang out around here not without so many people here out gunning for me, none the least is your boyfriend the police commissioner."

Alexis sniffed.

"He's not my boyfriend, he's…."

She couldn't quite finish. Jerry sashayed over to her and kissed her once more. She wrapped her arms around him feeling oh so wicked, down to her strait laces. Suddenly, after he slid away into some unknown realm, she heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Mac staring at her.

She could read some disapproval in his unblinking eyes.

"What is it Mac?"

He cleared his throat.

"Alexis, there's been a murder," he said, "another body's been found."

Her eyes widened.

"Where…?"

"In the hallway, I'm surprised you didn't come across it," he said, "You were the closest to the scene of the crime."

She snorted, blowing a tendril of her hair back.

"Oh come off it Mac," she said, "I'm already on trial for a murder I don't remember committing, why would I commit another one?"

He couldn't answer that and it irritated the hell out of her right down to her dyed roots.

"Alexis…like I said you were the closest…"

She sighed.

"I didn't do it…I have an alibi."

He looked at her doubtfully.

"You do? What is it if I might ask?"

She smiled knowingly.

"I was with someone," she said, "In the way we've never been together."

He clenched his jaw not needing to be reminded of that.

"Who was it…I need to talk to him…or her."

She just rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

"I can't tell you who it was," she said, "I'm exercising attorney client privilege."

He frowned.

"You can't do that unless the individual was your client…and only when it comes to any confessions."

She shook her head.

"Oh Mac, you get so tangled up in the technicalities."

He just looked at her as she picked lint off her clothing.

"Alexis…if you don't tell me, then you're going to be a suspect."

She just rolled her eyes.

"Oh whatever Mac…but I need to go and freshen up before I return to ministering to the needs of the poor suffering people her through ladling some more of that delicious soup."

She put on her heels and then she waltzed on out of there while he watched her go.

* * *

Kate snuck in the building to get shelter from the flood and hoped no one would see her. She didn't have many friends in PC and didn't want to have survived floating on the rapids for several blocks only to be tarred and feathered by some impromptu lynch mob. She hadn't meant to sleep with half the town's men drawing the line only with Coleman but she just couldn't help herself.

In fact she had just left Patrick where they had engaged in a feverish tryst after he had pulled her out of the water. She didn't know where he'd gone, probably to rescue some more people and do you know the same mouth to mouth that had invigorated her. He'd been good but she knew he would be and she scoured the room for some fine looking men in need of comforting.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Robin pulling what looked like freshly baked loaves of bread out of the oven and placing them next to lines of gingerbread men. She handed one of them carefully to a little girl with dark braids who looked like Molly. A pang of what almost felt like guilt struck her just then as her mind flashed back to her interlude with Patrick but then Robin had to know her husband was a serious player.

She just shook her head as she left the kitchen and then caught Johnny Wonderful's eye and he sidled up to her.

"Where you heading baby?"

She winked back at him.

"For a little walk to stretch my legs, care to join me," she said, with a smile.

He just smiled back and they left together but Robin looked away from her baking and her eyes narrowed into a reddish glow….her skin began to itch, the burn inside of her to grow…the hunger…and then she felt her body change again as she held on for dear life.


	50. Chapter 50

Alexis had returned to ladling soup to the needy denizens of PC that had wandered into the emergency center. But her hands shook as she did it, because really she just didn't get Mac sometimes. He had just accused her of committing another murder, one that had taken place inside this building. No, it couldn't have been her because after all she'd been doing the nasty horizontal with Jerry on some desk but then wait a minute…she had accidently stepped on something while walking to her rendezvous with him. But if that had been the victim, well she had already been dead by then so that hardly made her a suspect. She felt that the people in PC too quickly pointed their fingers at her, accusing her of a laundry list of sordid crimes including murder. But she was innocent of nearly all of them.

Lulu walked up to her with another vat of that god awful smelling soup that Robin had been cooking up in the kitchen. Earlier it had been chicken noodle that had been appeared harmless enough but this last batch, somebody really should go and relieve the young doctor turned youngest chief of staff ever in GH's history. Someone had clearly pulled some strings there but Alexis wasn't one to pry. But when she asked Lulu standing there in her pathetic 50s style poodle outfit, the younger dimwitted woman shook her head.

"No one can find Robin," she said, "She just disappeared."

Alexis frowned. Not that most people in this sorry excuse for a town didn't disappear at some point at least for a little while but not Robin…something must have happened to her and Alexis knew that her pathetic excuse for a husband wasn't going to go look for her. Patrick was too busy playing the reformed womanizer who was anything but to tend to his wife and the child she thought Robin had birthed a while back.

But then again Alexis couldn't go searching for Robin either. She had her own problems to worry about not the least was that she had succumbed to her lust that drove her crazy unless she could grab on to one of those PC bad boys and naturally she had chosen the worst of the lot. If he hadn't been so damn sexy, his eyes smoldering, his body hard, all she could think about when she saw his silhouette in the room was how much she had to have him. She couldn't be Alexis, the prim and proper spinster who got laid only to conceive daughters when she knew he was nearby. She had her wild moments, really she did but she knew she had to forbid herself from ever, ever touching him again.

No she had to leave him alone and cleave to someone respectable like Mac, even though he didn't have much respect for her right now. A little verbal sparring and exchange of wit and their endless rounds of foreplay would get back on track. She sighed, her body burning for another romp with a bad boy. But Jerry had slipped back into the shadows after they had consummated their lust and probably wouldn't return.

"Alexis, have you seen Brooklyn?"

Annoyance filled her at the fact that Lulu hadn't wandered off to bother someone else and why would she know where Ned's wayward daughter had gone? Oh wait yes, she had to be interested in her fate because she'd been appointed to her trial jury.

"Lulu, I haven't seen her," she said, "but she's a smart girl so she is probably around her somewhere."

Luke's had to be adopted daughter just sighed and finally did wander away from Alexis' station causing her to feel relief flood her. She backed up and bumped into something that felt human. She spun around and realized it was the young man with the mop that Alice had been threatening a while back. Poor man, because she knew firsthand how unreasonably draconian Eddy Q's housekeeper could be so she shared a smile with him.

"Ah, you must be Alexis…"

He stuck out his hand and she almost didn't take it, because it had been spattered with what had to be…red paint.

"Who are you again?"

The young man cleared his throat before he smiled.

"I'm Franco…I'm an artist."

Alexis frowned, thinking the name sounded vaguely familiar but really how could she be expected to know what to call everyone in PC? After all, Jerry changed his name and often his appearance every time he dropped by.

"Are you famous?"

He grinned even more widely and she though them quite animated if a bit mysterious.

"You might say that…my aren't you a beautiful creature?"

Alexis had it on the tip of her tongue to whip out her sarcastic repertoire to cut him as thoroughly as a blade might slice into a man's jugular. Now where had that thought come from, she thought. Oh she just knew this Franco had to be a bad boy, the way her loins throbbed right now. They never steered her wrong when it came to judging a man.

"Franco…I'm busy now but maybe later…you and I could…chat over some scotch…if we can find any in this place."

He nodded pleasantly enough and sidled away after whispering that he'd see her soon.

"What a charming young man," she said to no one in particular, "but Alexis…he's a bad boy, which means you must stay away from him…yes….you're on trial for murder and this whole town…Mac…Eddy Q and everyone else is out to get you….Jerry's just out to get laid but everyone else…"

She felt at that point that her mind was spinning too fast enough to make her faint so she just concentrated on ladling more of that dreadful smelling soup into bowls to feed the masses that were too hungry to notice.

* * *

Carly paced the room too agitated to sit down even for one moment. Not when Sonny's latest Bridezella was in the building. That'd be that witch Brenda who had been complaining that she had been separated from her manicurist. Carly just wanted to let her own claws come out when she encountered her in the lobby. She knew she hadn't been married to Sonny in awhile and that Jax was supposed to be her one and only husband but she just couldn't help herself when it came to the moody mobster.

She still wanted to call the shots with him because they shared a child after all, who she hadn't seen in a while but when she saw Brenda with him, it just set her off. And since Jax was out there engaged in a tireless rescue operation, she had no one to physically restrain her. Not even her best friend forever Jason who no doubt was parked in some dark area with Sam the Skank. At least Sonny had the sense to kick that tramp to the curb.

Brenda caught her eye and flashed her one of her haughty glances, the one that told Carly that she knew she was PC's queen bee and Sonny's current mobster moll. Sonny had showered her with more jewelry and so her fingers shimmered with diamonds that she had put on after she pulled them out of her money belt that had survived the flood. The other women looked at her surely with envy she thought that they could never be as lovely and vivacious as she had become. But then Liz came rushing over to her dressed in a white doctor's jacket drenched with what looked like blood. Brenda recoiled at the sight.

"Brenda I need something from you."

But Brenda shrunk back and away from Liz as if she were the plague.

"I can't…I'm waiting for Sonny…"

Liz just flashed her an impatient look.

"Brenda…people are dying everywhere…I can only operate on them one at a time and I need…"

She reached for one of Brenda's hands, shimmering with diamonds and started tugging at her pinkie ring.

"Hey, what are you doing," Brenda said, pulling her hand away.

Liz just willed herself not to throttle Sonny's latest spoiled Mafia princess. But Brenda had what she needed on her finger so she wrenched the pinky ring off.

"Hey…."

Brenda just protested and tried to pull her manicured fingers away but Liz had what she needed. The bit on her drill she needed to perform neurosurgery had worn out and the diamond would suit her needs perfectly.

"I don't have time," she said, "My patient's waiting…"

She rushed back to where Maxi stood patiently waiting to help her perform the delicate surgery with the drill and plastic wrap. Brenda just shook her curls at her as Carly stood waiting to jump her. She knew it if she took a wrong step. Sonny had of course disappeared again.

She looked up and saw Max standing there looking stalwart as always and like he totally wanted her. When he gazed on her sexy body and beautiful face, he saw forbidden fruit that he could look at, he could even covet but never touch. Sonny would have him killed if he looked at her wrong, and the thought of that sometimes…stirred up feelings of lust inside of her too. Not that she'd ever act on him, she knew she could give him a sweet slice of paradise before Sonny had him executed for his transgression.

"Max…"

She inflected her voice with its sexy, whispery drawl and he blinked his eyes looking up at her.

"What…Ms Brenda?"

She fluttered her mascara-laden eyes at him.

"When you look at me, what do you see?"

Max just stared at her, clearly drawing a blank…wondering what the proper response would be.

"I…"

Diane crashed her way into the middle of them, her whip tucked on her side.

"Max…really you're being so unreasonable…Just because you paddled me once doesn't mean we're married."

Brenda narrowed her eyes looking at the subject in front of her.

"Who are you?"

Diane shrugged, not interested in what this tart thought about her. She just wondered what Max would say if she broached the leash issue with him. It just had been like walking on egg shells with him lately.

She just decided to ignore Brenda.

"Look Max…when all this is over…we'll head on back to my place and I'll truss you up."

Max looked skeptical.

"Only if you wear the leather…"

Diane sighed and nodded.

"I'll think about it," she said, "if you wear the bling I got you."

Brenda just sidled away from them after realizing she wasn't the focus of the conversation, keeping a careful eye on Carly. Damn, what had happened to Sonny anyway?

* * *

Sonny had bumped into Jason in the back room while he'd been in a clinch with a brunette who looked like Sam. Jason extricated himself from Sam's hungry embrace and blinked his eyes at Sonny.

"What's going down here Sonny," he said, "You're on another hit list?"

Sonny clenched his jaw and realized that the lifts in his shoes had begun to pinch his toes.

"They are all going to be dead to me…I own all the rights to the shipment of (cough) coffee beans (cough) in PC and no one's going to move in on my action."

Jason stared at him and then some light went on inside his head and he nodded.

"Okay Sonny…I and Max…we'll case the building…uncover any threats and deal with them."

Sonny nodded and Sam just put her hands on her hips, where her pants had sunk.

"What about me Jas…what do you want me to do?"

Jason just looked at her a moment.

"Maybe you should help your mother with the soup line."

Sam just made a face at him and snuggled up to him.

"I'd rather get some loving from you Jas," she said, "It's been so long…."

Jason just moved away from her for his eyes were on Sonny now and the thought that his life might be in danger….

Suddenly a hail of gunfire ricocheted through the room and Jason leapt on top of Sonny to protect him from the bullets which pockmarked the wall near where he had just stood.

After the gunfire stopped, they heard a howl which chilled their blood and the two men still sprawled on the floor just looked at each other and then towards the doorway.


	51. Chapter 51

Kristina looked around her in disbelief as Faith walked alongside her not looking at all surprised. She looked up and saw a shaggy haired man ahead running through the streets with a stethoscope around his neck.

"Who…."

Because he was fine looking after all and something familiar…

"Oh that's Jeff Webber…Dr. Jeff Webber…off to some medical emergency."

Kristina nodded slowly.

"So that's Liz's dad?"

Faith smiled.

"The one and the same," she said, "though frankly I don't see the resemblance. I think her birth has some secret back story."

That wouldn't surprise Kristina because in PC anything could happen because there were no rules after all or at least none that anyone could cite.

"Where's he going?"

Faith shrugged.

"It's hard to say with him," she said, "Either he's running to a medical crisis or away from some woman's husband."

The two of them watched him carefully as he rushed inside what looked like that dreadful coffee place that was for nerds but wait a minute, it had a different name here.

"Kelly's Diner," Kristina read, "who's Kelly?"

Faith shook her head.

"That's a very long story and we don't have much time here."

Another man rushed by them, older than the first one but he also wore a stethoscope around his neck. He stopped next to them and looked around as if he were seeking someone before he noticed them.

"Did you see a man rush by?"

Kristina looked over at Faith, not sure how to answer. Faith just smiled at him.

"He's in the diner….Rick…."

The man nodded and rushed off.

"They're sharing a woman again but the only one who knew was her…until now."

Kristina wondered what would happen when these two men collided inside what looked now like a diner.

"Oh don't worry….Rose who runs it keeps a shotgun by the bar and she'll take care of any rowdiness that takes place in her establishment."

Kristina chose to believe Faith and then she saw a woman slinking around the diner dressed in a bathrobe.

"Who's that?"

Faith waved her hand.

"Oh that's Heather…something…she's the woman they aren't fighting over."

The two women watched her creep up to a window to look inside the diner thinking no one noticed and for the most part, no one did.

Then they suddenly noticed the sun fading behind a wall of clouds that suddenly appeared and a chilly breeze rustle through the tree-lined street. Kristina looked at Faith.

"What, is it going to rain?"

Faith's eyes glowed.

"Oh no something much worse," she said, "the most deranged person who's crossed paths with this city is about to launch the most diabolical plot…"

And then the world became dark around them…

* * *

Alexis fluttered her eyes at the man with a mop again…even though Jerry what's his name now had really rocked her world even as they had both nearly destroyed that desk, she felt herself lusting again. He had slipped away into the darkness after they had been together so that left her wanton. She flashed a glance at Max but knew she couldn't betray Dianne in that way. Besides, she just wasn't into tying men up which she knew Max craved despite his burliness. She just didn't get what was so erotic about rope play but then again, her own sex life left much to be desire…she'd remain chaste for long periods, then have the most explosive sex that anyone could ever experience…but then came the pregnancy tests and yet another daughter that'd be born and left for her to raise on her own.

Oh god, what if she had just gotten pregnant again during her interlude with Jerry? She wrung her hands as she stopped ladling soup at the table. No, it couldn't be, she desperately needed some of that happy grass that charming if quirky boy had sold her to her from time to time. But she had heard on the rumor mill that he had been infected by the same deadly plague that led to the quarantine imposed on them by Liz. Nonsense, she thought because she didn't feel sick at all. If anyone else had fallen deathly ill, that was their own fault.

Robin sidled up to her with another tray of bread that must have just come out of the oven because it smelled so heavenly. Alexis flirted with the thought that it seemed more than a bit odd that Robin was baking like a madwoman in the kitchen rather than using her medical skills on the many patients clogging up the floors around them. But then again, none of her business, she had her own crises to worry about. She needed her girls…all two of…no wait there were three right? Well anyway, she needed them to comfort their mother, the one whose loins had squeezed them out in the most difficult conditions. If it hadn't been for her, they wouldn't be alive even though she had no idea how Sami had even been born. A thought nagged in her psyche from time to time that she should really think about getting a DNA test done on her eldest…just to be really, to be absolutely sure they were related but then no, Sami just had to be her spawn. She just got all her really unpleasant, somewhat tacky traits from her father who was so memorable after all, Alexis had no memory of him at all.

"Would you like some bread?"

Alexis blinked her eyes and looked over at Robin while clenching her hands nervously.

"Oh no…I'm fine," she said, "I'm watching what I eat."

A hurt look flashed through the doctor's eyes but she smiled to gloss it over. Alexis almost pitied her mostly because she had just seen Patrick sweet talk a young thing into the pantry…to look for some canned peas….and she'd just rolled her eyes because Alexis didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday. She knew that men like Patrick didn't even like canned peas.

"But it's so yummy….."

Alexis looked at the other woman carefully…noticing that her eyes appeared reddened. But then Robin had been working herself hard in the kitchen since the disaster had driven half the town into one Brownstone building.

"Maybe later…say have you seen any of my daughters?"

Robin's blank expression didn't tell Alexis very much.

"No…oh wait…your sweet little Molly came in the kitchen for a special cookie," she said, "She's such a dear girl."

Alexis was used to hearing that about her youngest, the only child who never gave her any reason to worry a shock considering she'd been sired by a cad who Alexis had cavorted with and even married against her better judgment.

"I must have missed her…."

But she had seen Sami running around with that thug Jason again. Really when she had a few minutes in her busy schedule, she had to sit down with her eldest and stir her away from that loser once and for all. She had grown weary of all the whispers about town about how Sami was no better than a freeloading, gold digging harlot or tramp. It made it even harder to go out in public these days than her own reputation as a remorseless serial killer, one of several deviant branches on a poisonous family tree.

She should really think about moving as soon as the murder trial had ended and she of course was vindicated. Skye who had been living with the brother of the only man that she had remembered killing had written her suggesting that she try out a quiet little berg called Pine Valley.

But first things first, she had so many important things to do in PC if only she could remember what they were.

Robin just smiled at her and suddenly Alexis saw a glint in her eye that made her shiver. Almost as if the room had suddenly grown dark and cold…oh wait no, that was a power outage that had just struck. She stood there by the soup table listening to a lot of bustling and some screaming going on around her, wondering if this nightmarish day would ever end.

* * *

Niklos lay brooding in his coffin, his eyes opening after he had shut them for a few moments. He had tried sleeping after he had tried drinking some bottles of brew from his cellar but nothing helped ease his emotional pain. Liz was supposed to have taken the ferry to Spoon Island but he hadn't heard the familiar fog horn of its approach tonight. Where could she possibly be, and where was his sister Lulu who was supposed to bring him some dinner?

He was too depressed to call the servants to cook him up some food in his spacious kitchen. No, not when the whole world had abandoned him and left him alone…But then he noticed movement, almost like the coffin was shifting on the floor…or bobbing up and down. He sat up after some effort and looked around him, then his eyes widened because the coffin had been floating in water that looked pretty deep along with other furniture in his stylish library. What had happened, where had the water come from…his castle stood on the bluff overlooking the lake after all.

Then he heard a voice yelling through the darkness.

"Anyone here…?"

He lay back down in his coffin again wondering if he should even answer. He had been totally abandoned after all, left her alone on Spoon Island. But then the voice sounded again and it grew louder.

"Yo Niklos…you still alive or what…?"

He didn't know what the voice meant, by or what and then he remembered that there was more than one kind of death. His own had been more spiritual than physical though he could feel his body growing brittle and weak. Then something bumped against his coffin and it looked like…a surfboard and then he knew.

"Jax….?"

"Yes, it's me and I'm here to rescue you just like I've saved half the town."

Niklos tried to focus his eyes.

"It's really you and what's going on with the town?"

Jax sighed.

"You haven't heard, the dam broke and flooded all of PC proper…except the Q's mansion but it's surrounded by water."

Niklos nodded.

"Anyone killed?"

Jax shook his head.

"No one important just those who exist on the canvas for a short time only to be killed," he said, "but no one's seen Coleman and I'm beginning to worry."

"Bummer…he tended bar at one of my soirees here."

Jax smiled.

"We'd better get moving," he said, "the water's still rising and Spoon Island will be underwater in about 15 minutes…"

Niklos felt confused.

"What…how….?"

Jax didn't say anything but gestured for Niklos to grab the rope he handed him and hitch the coffin to his surfboard so they could float on out of there and back to PC across the lake. Niklos just nodded dumbly and did just that, as Jax flexed his mighty arms in preparation of what lay ahead.

Soon after they began pushing through the water to head back to PC and safety. Niklos taking one last look at his mansion before lying back down and brooding once again about his uncertain future.


	52. Chapter 52

Most everyone inside the lobby of the historic building turned community evacuation facility cleared the floor at the first sign of trouble. That had been when Sonny's two women had made eyes at each other from across the room and both refused to look away, deferring to one another. There could only be one queen bee in the hive and Sonny could have only one mafia moll at his side at a time.

Brenda and Carly had walked across the room from their respective corners and staked each other out, circling with their mascara coated eyes focused on the other. Darkness had fallen over the building after the last vestige of power went out but someone soon struck a match without blowing the building up to provide a soft halo of light. Soon more candles were lit including by other souls including Robin and Max who handed a spare off to Lulu. She tried to hand one off to a woman wearing a veil over her face standing a distance away but the other woman shook her head. Lulu narrowed her eyes thinking she looked familiar but…then decided it wasn't important.

She wished she had some idea where Johnny Wonderful had wandered off to this time when she hadn't been looking. Now that was important, so she decided to leave the latest members of Sonny's harem to their devices and go looking for him. But when the sounds of furniture being moved and crystal being shattered reached her, she wondered if the whole world had gone crazy when she hadn't been looking. Then she idly wondered if her father had anything to do with it.

"He's mine….," one of the women shrieked but Lulu couldn't be sure which one in the disarray.

"You bitch," came from the other side of the room.

Lulu just couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried what the appeal was about Sonny. He was a scrappy looking, hollow eyed mumbling guy who wore elevator shoes disguised as boots. Yet all these PC women had fallen onto the nearest furniture with him whenever he favored them with what was described as a smoldering look. His spell just didn't work on her and she didn't know why…not when there were men like Johnny Wonderful around anyway.

"You are dead to me," a woman who sounded like Carly said.

"Hey that's my line," Sonny mumbled softly from the sidelines waiting to see who'd win as he usually did whenever a chick fight broke out in his proximity.

"Trailer trash"

"Debutante slut…"

The endearments continued to be exchanged in the heat of battle between the two women each word slicing deeply into the opponent like a finely honed stiletto blade. But neither woman even considered surrender not even for a dubious prize like a washed up Mafia dude.

The crowd watching the two women go at it widened and Lulu knew the fur would start flying really fast so she decided to take her exit at that point. She looked into the darkness of the corridor and felt a trace of fear tickle the back of her neck. Shouldn't she at least find a flashlight, or lantern she asked herself…but regardless she had to go looking for him so she started walking towards the door leading to a hallway that appeared to be as good a place to start as anyone of the dozen that had just popped up to choose from.

"Lulu wait…"

Someone grabbed her arm and she turned to see that it was Sami. She turned around to face the older woman who couldn't keep her own pants hitched up.

"What's wrong Sami," she said, "You can't find Jason again?"

Sami just looked at her and shook her head.

"He's talking with some others to try to decide whether we need to send out a rescue signal…you know an SOS so people can find us."

Lulu didn't think that to be a wasted effort. After all, they couldn't stay confined in the Brownstone for very much longer, not if brawls were breaking out every few minutes and people were starting to disappear.

"So what do you want then?"

Sami just stuck another piece of gum in her mouth and started chewing it.

"I…I need to know if I can borrow some plastic."

Lulu's brows rose. What on earth was this clueless tramp thinking about when the whole city had been washed away by the flood? It's not like any of the high scale boutiques were standing let alone open for business and judging from the looks of Sami and her reputation around PC, she didn't frequent those venues anyway.

"Why on earth do you need to borrow a credit card?"

Sami's jaw worked and she fidgeted with her pants which started to sag again.

"I saw some stuff I want to buy on Ebay," she said, "My mom, you know Alexis, told me I need to get a job if I'm going to keep living with her and I need some threads to wear at the interview."

Lulu wasn't impressed by Sami's newly discovered work ethic. She knew that if Sami bought clothes, they'd be any low plunging, high hemmed getup out there to use to entice any male employers to hire her over the better qualified competition. She wasn't a huge fan of Alexis or Natasha as her dad called the neurotic lawyer but she wondered along with the rest of the town why Alexis didn't just do a DNA test to find out for sure whether or not Sami was really her daughter before allowing her to keep sponging off of her.

"Sami…don't be so selfish," she said, "People are dying, they're maimed and they're homeless…and all you can think about is shopping."

The other woman shrugged, unapologetic.

"Hey, got to look nice if I'm going to be a self-made woman."

Lulu just walked away from her totally finished at this point. After all, she had more important things to do. But as she glanced into the darkness of the hallways where any shard of light penetrating it quickly disappeared, she seemed less sure of herself than ever.

* * *

Alexis had watched as Sami had sidled up to Lulu and decided that if they all survived this latest disaster, she had to crack down on her oldest daughter. She realized that Sami had taken total advantage of her self-less expression of motherhood for too long, really she should have bought a clue when Sami had started chasing after her men beginning with Sonny. Jason might be a heartless thug but at least Alexis hadn't bedded him first though she had been tempted a time or two…but she just hadn't been as good at this whole cougar thing as Dianne.

Alexis' talent was for shacking up with bad boys, the latest example being the one she had just cavorted with not hours earlier and then after that, she had been exchanging meaningful looks with that Franco character. Maybe she did need therapy after all, if she called Gail right now …maybe she could squeeze some couch time in…oh wait a minute, a disaster had hit PC she remembered. And besides, she was booked for weeks with her murder trial.

"Hey good looking…"

Alexis turned her piercing eyes on the man with a mop who looked as if he were half her age. Not that she even remembered her age but he was a good looking boy with dark hair, a dimpled chin and a sinister look in his eyes. But what was that on his smock that the apron couldn't quite cover? Something crimson….was it?

"Hey you want to go somewhere quiet and talk?"

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Franco…is that your name?"

He nodded.

"It can be….I'm a Renaissance man…of many different arts and trades."

She nodded thoughtfully, the heart inside her chest beating slightly faster but she had to know something first.

"Did Dianne set you up with me?"

He looked puzzled for a moment and that just made him look more dangerous which meant sexier.

"Dianne…ah yes…mistress of the whip."

Alexis nodded.

"Yes..well she's constantly trying to set me up with younger men like I need help."

"Do you?"

His eyes penetrated into her soul just then and she felt her excitement build. She pushed a strand of hair out of her face and fluttered her eyelashes.

"I don't think so…now my eldest daughter on the other hand…she needs a boyfriend who would be a good influence on her…"

Franco's eyes blinked before he smiled again.

"You mean Sami is your daughter…you look too young to have a daughter that age."

Alexis sighed.

"Every woman does in PC," she said, "It's something in the water."

Franco nodded.

"She's a very pretty girl but not as much as her mother."

Alexis sputtered.

"Why…thank you…but you're probably too nice for a woman like me."

Franco's mouth widened further.

"Oh don't be too sure about that…come on I'll buy you a drink."

* * *

Johnny Wonderful gazed into the eyes of the blonde woman pinned beneath his body on the couch. Sweat glistened on their bodies as their breathing returned to normal after their coupling. Something about the threat of imminent death had just turned Johnny on so much that he couldn't stop himself from wanting the student nurse whose clothes sheathed her body in a way that enticed and flattered. He'd thought about Lulu and her sweetness a couple times but he…well…he needed this if tomorrow never came for any of them.

Sandra the nurse had been all too happy to go off alone with him into an empty office but now as their bodies remained intertwined, Johnny Wonderful felt some pangs of guilt.

Sandra pulled out a cigarette and lighter from somewhere and lit up.

"That was frigging awesome," she said, "You're everything I heard and more. Patrick thinks he's hot stuff but you were much better."

Johnny nodded his thanks.

"So could we like do this again?"

He just looked at her unable to answer her question.

"I mean you're just so hot and all."

Johnny swallowed noisily thinking he had to get dressed and get out of here before Lulu came looking for him.

"We'd better head back to rejoin the others."

He reached for his clothes and she took the hint and got dressed as well. Soon enough they were heading to the door where she stopped. He glanced at her.

"You staying here?"

She shrugged.

"I need to finish my cigarette," she said, "I don't want that Robin chick taking away my whole pack."

Johnny nodded and left her and Sandra remained humming to herself, her back to the door. She didn't hear it swing open with a gentle creak and then when she did and she turned around to look….it was already too late.

She screamed loudly but there was no one there to listen except the killer who stood over her prone body before reaching for the scissors.

* * *

Mac walked down the hallway a few minutes later and saw the little sweet girl heading towards him looking lost.

"Molly, what are you doing here by yourself?"

She wiped a tear from a rosy cheek.

"Mac…I don't know…where's my mommy?"

"She's back at the soup table," Mac said, "Here, we'll go back together so you won't have any reason to be afraid."

Looking at him mutely, Molly just nodded as they walked back to the others.


	53. Chapter 53

Nikolas lay back in the coffin as it bobbed over the waves, reminding himself just how dismal and horrible his life had become in the past few months. Not that it had ever really been that great because his father had been some crazy zombie and his mother had abandoned him to return to her "real" family. If she hadn't desperately needed a part of him, his damn bone marrow, to save her beloved daughter's life…he might still be rotting away on Cassadine Island lavished in luxury.

But then again, maybe he would have been better off if she had never returned because in PC, he'd really had to slum a bit, his current digs being a pale comparison to his old haunts. Perhaps if he remained at the place of his birth, he wouldn't have been subjected to a string of women who loved him and then left him.

So his life had always sucked but never as much so as in recent months. He had blamed his parents, his manipulative grandmother Helena and just about everyone around him. The island had become his haven away from the sordid life on the mainland and he rarely left it anymore, though he did take long walks along the moors up to the rocky cliffs.

He heard some huffing and puffing and lifted his head up to see Jax's strong arms churning through the flooded waters, tugging his coffin to the mainland. The only thing keeping Jax afloat was his surfboard, which sliced through the currents.

"Are we almost there yet," Niklos asked as it seemed they had been in the water for hours.

No one responded which irritated the dark prince.

"I said…."

Jax sputtered some water out of his mouth.

"Just another mile, maybe two and we'll be safely on dry land."

Niklos sighed heavily as he lay back in the coffin, which had grown damp because of the water splashing inside it and soiling its silk lining. Then he noticed a ghostly presence sitting on the coffin, that of a young translucent woman with curly brown hair. It looked like….

"Georgia?"

She looked at him, her lips pursed in disapproval.

"You should just die Nikolas."

His eyes widened in shock, who was she to say such a thing to him?

"What are you talking about?"

She pointed a finger at him.

"You are so gloomy Nikolas," she said, "There's a whole world out there and yet you sulk on a fog shrouded island and sleep in a coffin."

He threw her a pouty look.

"It's my life and everyone who's ever been in it has betrayed me beginning with my own parents."

Georgia just shook her head.

"My parents are the most irresponsible, flakiest hippies on the planet," she said, "My mother didn't even see fit to birth me in a hospital but I lived my life fully."

Nikolas just stared at her broodingly.

"You're dead….your boyfriend killed you in a fit of rage after you discovered his murderous ways."

"Hey at least he was a little bit sorry afterward."

Nikolas just fumed in his coffin.

"How can you judge me on anything if your own actions made you dead."

She arched a ghostly eyebrow.

"Ah but Nikolas, I'm only dead on the outside," she said, "You're dead on the inside and that's enough to be eternally damned."

He shook his head.

"No. I can't be."

Georgia just looked at him sadly as she began to fade away.

"There's great evil inside this town and only the righteous will prevail.'

With that admonition, she was gone leaving Nikolas to sink back in his coffin while Jax fought against the current to deliver them both to shore.

* * *

Edward nibbled on the stale pizza as he sat on top of the roof at the Q mansion, the lone building not submerged beneath the flood waters on the richer side of town. He had waited for Alice to cook up a meal for him and the others until he realized two things, that the kitchen was under water and Alice had disappeared. Dillion his freeloading grandson had blown into town after bumming around Europe for a while and Ned had wanted to move back in after his investments took a killing in the stock market. Lois had hooked onto Ned with her manicured talons by then and so when he arrived, so did she and at that point, Ed had his butler padlock the door to seek every other erstwhile relative outside.

As he saw Reginald do as he ordered, he felt a wave of nostalgia mercifully brief about Nigel, who he still missed though he'd never admit it out loud.

Edward had retreated to the roof to escape both the flood and everyone else. He had hoped the spirit of his beloved wife Lila would provide him some guidance but except for the rushing water, the night had been quiet. Maybe she was too busy giving his late son Allan, a much needed kick in the pants.

Dillion had rescued some old pizza just before the kitchen had been flooded, providing some justification for his miserable life. He had tossed the box to Edward and he had feasted on it. Tracy hadn't yet reemerged which meant there was no reason to have Dillion taste the pizza first and make sure it wasn't poisoned.

"Hey Eddy Q, can I take the Porsche out for a spin?"

Edward just blinked his eyes at his blockhead for a grandson.

"The entire town is flooded in case you haven't noticed."

Dillion really started looking around him and then nodded slowly.

"Yeah…I see what you mean Eddy Q, maybe I should take the yacht out inside."

Maybe Dillion should get a haircut and a shave, some respectable looking clothes and go out looking for a job. Or help out with the rescue effort or something.

Suddenly Dillion's eyes widened and he pointed.

"Hey look…someone's out there," he said, "It looks like someone surfing."

Edward looked out too and saw a man lying on a surfboard pulling something like a box. Damn fool to think about going out in the middle of a flood but this younger generation had no brains.

"He seems to be coming towards us," Dillion said, "Maybe we should go meet them."

Maybe not, Edward thought still gnawing his pizza. Only the Thanksgiving Turkey or Christmas ham would be harder.

"You go check them out and take the shot gun….maybe Ned should go with you."

Dillion just looked at him not quite understanding.

* * *

Alexis saw the lady with the veil standing across the room and it made her nervous. She had no idea who this mysterious woman might be or what she might want. But she couldn't waste much time wondering about it not with everything she already had on her plate.

Franco, sweet man that he appeared to be had offered to buy her a drink. Really she thought he might just be perfect for her wayward daughter Sam who needed the right man to stir her away from her gold digging, tramp acting ways. Alexis just didn't know where she had picked up that kind of behavior but she couldn't just keep acting that way and she couldn't keep shacking up with that thug, Jason. So a little match making might be in order here.

But then Brenda and Carly had gotten into a chick fight overthrowing furniture and damaging crystal. Finally Liz had to take a few minutes away from her emergency appendectomy to inject both women with sedatives that they were both sleeping off in their respective corners.

Mac walked up to her with what looked like her daughter…Molly her name was and he smiled.

"I found her wandering around," he said, "It's not safe for a young girl."

Alexis looked down at Molly who looked perfectly fine, even serene.

"I can see she's perfectly fine now," she said, "I never have to worry about this child."

Mac nodded and then sighed.

"Alexis…I was thinking sometime maybe we could go out and have a coffee or…"

At that point, a scream shrieked through the building and Mac spun his head around as Lulu came running out of the hallway.

"There's been a murder…."

Mac rushed up to her and grabbed her shoulders.

"What is it…who is it and where?"

Lulu nearly collapsed in a puddle in her poodle skirt.

"It's so horrible…she's dead…lots of blood and her eyes…oh her eyes…"

Lulu lost it then and nearly went catatonic. Alexis just walked up to her and slapped her.

"If only someone had done this with her mother," she sighed.

Mac just looked at Lulu as her eyes fluttered and she returned to life.

"Where is she?"

Lulu struggled to remember.

"She's lying in the hallway," she said, "I found her while I was looking for Johnny Wonderful and he's still missing."

Mac patted Lulu on the shoulder.

"We'll find him and we'll find this remorseless killing machine too," he said, "I'm telling you this as the police commissioner."

Lulu nodded wordlessly and wandered off. Alexis looked at Mac.

"Who could have done such a thing…and before you look at me, I do have an alibi."

But Mac looked distracted, maybe he was thinking.

"I don't know if PC has ever seen such a killer before," he said, "We must find and apprehend him or her before it's too late."

He dashed off then and Alexis followed him, leaving her youngest daughter there to watch them go.


	54. Chapter 54

Faith just looked at her protégée, her eyes lit up with excitement and her skin once again sparkling in that ethereal way.

"Isn't this exciting," she said, "This was back in the heyday of what was once a thriving town."

Kristina looked around her but she just didn't see it. The darkness that had ascended, well it had blended with the rest of the canvas, around what looked like it had been the infamously known Waterfront. Only it must have been some years earlier because instead of the urban decay which defined it, she saw discos and restaurants, with elegantly dressed people spilling out of them. The curly haired blond guy with poor taste in clothes showed up again and she gestured to him.

"That's Luke again isn't it?"

Faith nodded.

"Yes in his younger, less settled years," she said, "After he broke up Laura's marriage to Scott Baldwin, what a scandal that turned out to be."

Kristina had heard the stories but they just sounded so outrageous she didn't believe half of them. After all, Luke appeared like an aged hippy to her married to that witch, Tracy Quartermaine and disappearing from PC's canvas for long periods of time. Laura of course was sitting catatonic in some sanitarium somewhere, according to Lulu. But here, he looked younger, edgier in a way that exuded magnetism.

"He's…"

Kristina didn't know how to put it into words how she saw him. But Faith just smiled at her.

"Yes, he was quite a player back then," she said, "Attracted women by the droves but he only had eyes for Laura, god knows why."

They watched Luke standing outside the disco as a woman who could only be Laura approached him. She had soft golden blonde curls, expressive eyes and dimpled cheeks. Lush in build, not like the usual crew of PC stick figures, she attracted appreciative glances from other men around her including an older man that Kristina knew to be Scott Baldwin's father. Luke started to say something to Laura as she looked at him and the noisy din of the street faded to a hush as time appeared to stop. Kristina felt the sensation of silence around her, broken only by the beat of her heart.

"Luke…I told you that I'm not going out with you ever, ever again."

Luke just stared at her nonplussed.

"Oh my luscious lily flower, you can't stay away from me," he said, "We both know it, that husband of yours can't give you what I can baby cakes."

Laura folded her arms.

"I'm not succumbing to your charm, ever, ever again," she said, "I'm working now with ELQ and I'm doing really important work."

Luke's eyes lit up and his mouth curved roguishly.

"Oh doll baby, that's great news, so am I…"

Laura's jaw just dropped because Eddy Q as he was known in the secretarial pool never told her that detail when he'd hired her.

"Since when…?"

"Since last week," Luke said, "I'm going to be Mr. Q's personal liaison and point guy with his cabal partners."

Laura scoffed.

"You mean his errand boy," she said.

Luke shrugged as if he didn't have a care in the world. Kristina watched the interplay between the two legendary lovers who had their own wing at the PC Museum of Natural History. She had gone there with other students on field trips and had glanced at the exhibits on display documenting key events in the history of this town. But somehow had she wound up in the middle of it all?

Faith pointed to an alley where an older woman wearing a veil stood there as if waiting for someone.

"Who's she?"

Faith looked mysterious.

"She's come to town on a mission," she said, "No one's supposed to know that she's here."

"Why?"

They watched as a man came up to her, a distinguished looking gent with brown hair and carrying a photo. Kristina crept a bit closer to get a better look and wondered what the woman could have been looking at that made her eyes widen.

"Have you found it Tony?"

He sighed.

"No…but I'm still looking. It'd be easier if my brother would give me a better photo."

The woman scoffed.

"What's there to look for," she said, "It's the ugliest assed piece of rock I've ever seen and don't tell your brother I used that description."

Tony laughed.

"Because he bought it for you as an anniversary present…?"

The woman made a face. Kristina looked at her closely, thinking she looked more than just a little familiar.

"No because he believes that I've given up my propensity for crude language and even cruder sex…"

"My brother's always been into kink," Tony said, "It's a Cassadine trait so I wouldn't think you have anything to worry about as his wife."

That word appeared to sting the woman with the veil, Kristina noticed. But she recovered quickly.

"He's a brilliant man but a philandering cheat," the woman said, "with bastard children everywhere. Just last week I had to go to Natasha's piano recital…it's a slap in the face to watch the spawn of his mistress performing like her tramp of a mother."

Tony yawned.

"So that's why you slit her throat," he said, "that just brought that brat into your house."

The woman sighed.

"Well I've got my darling Stavros looking after her," she said, "I can't be bothered. But I need you to find that damn rock before my husband does."

Tony nodded and then drew her into his arms to kiss her on the mouth.

"Anything for you Helena…"

Then he disappeared into the darkness with Kristina standing there watching him while Faith cackled into the night.

* * *

Alexis thought Alice was being too mean to that poor man; Franco the charming and clearly talented artist she decided might just make a perfect blind date for her wayward tramp of a daughter Sami. The Q housekeeper had Franco mopping the floor again after the latest bloodbath and discovery of a dead boy, its eyes missing. When she had heard Max tell her about it over coffee, she had thought back to the discovery of Molly's doll collection back at the house. Weren't they all missing their eyes too, she tried to remember but she hadn't thought it important at the time compared to what had been wrong with her own life.

Besides what little she'd seen of her youngest daughter had been of her daughter playing nicely with others and even accepting a cookie from Robin in the kitchen. No, Molly had never caused her any trouble like her older siblings.

She saw Alice threaten Franco with a hard look and what looked like it might be Dianne's whip. Her best friend had abandoned her once again to go strike up a conversation with Lucky who had just broken up with Lollypop Liz again. Mac had taken off to try to find some storage space in the freezer for the latest dead body to turn up after he dusted it for prints of course. Brenda and Carly were both chilling out in their separate corners after being patched up by Liz. Sonny was of course nowhere to be found but Alexis didn't miss him much. Yeah, Sonny had rocked her world a bit when they'd been canoodling on his sofa but nothing compared to the man who had just ravished her on the desk inside the office. Jerry what's his name might be a psychotic terrorist or whatever but he knew how to make a woman go wild.

He had slipped away again and Alexis idly wondered if he might have been responsible for the rash of killings. But then hadn't he been busy with her when one of them happened?

Monica came up to her. Alexis hadn't even known that she was here. She thought that the doctor had walked down the same hallway that Bobbie Spencer had taken and had just vanished off the face of PC. But now here she was, and she looked like she'd just left a salon. Alexis hated her for that.

"Have you seen my son Jason?"

Alexis shook her head. She probably should never tell Monica this but if Jason were to die a horrible death, she would probably celebrate it because it would mean that he'd no longer be corrupting her daughter Sami. But Monica would kick her ass if she knew what she was thinking and no one wanted to take on Monica in a dark alley. The woman was tougher than she looked. After dealing with the homicidal pill popping Allen for years until his untimely death, she had to be.

"No I haven't Monica," Alexis said, "But he's probably somewhere with my daughter Sami feeling her up in some closet."

Monica made a face.

"I really wanted better for my son than hooking up with some trollup."

Alexis supposed she should defend Sami's honor by countering Monica's assessment of her firstborn with some scathing commentary or invoking an ancient family curse. But she knew that Monica in this case just spoke the truth.

"I wish my daughter would end up with some guy who wouldn't get her killed in a hail of gunfire or explosions."

Monica just looked at her and then something caught her eye. Alexis remembered that the doctor had a thing for younger men. After all, she had cavorted with Ned a time or two way before Alexis ditched him at the altar because she had no choice.

Monica gritted her teeth.

"I guess we both just want the best for our children."

But then when Johnny Wonderful walked by, filling out his tight jeans in a provocative way, Monica's attention wandered.

"Excuse me a moment," she said, "I'm needed in the medical clinic."

Alexis watched as Monica stealthily followed Johnny Wonderful down a corridor and sighed, feeling once again alone.

* * *

Liz came out with her surgical mask slung around her neck and told the masses that the quarantine wouldn't have to be extended past its current boundaries but that Spinelli's condition hadn't yet improved as hoped. Watching from the back of the room was a feral pair of eyes belonging to a creature not human sitting on its haunches wearing an apron around its waist. Franco who still mopped the floor after bearing the lash of Alice's good aim looked over at the creature, a secret smile on his face.

"I know you lass," he said, "I know your secret. Soon the world will know mine. And PC will come crumbling down in a haze of destruction like it has never seen."

The hairy creature looked over at Franco and growled, its teeth glistening with drops of saliva. Its eyes reddened as they searched the room for one particular person. Fingernails had erupted into claws and strength and speed had supplemented feminine softness and grace.

But behind them both, an even more formidable being watched, humming a little melody to itself, while clutching a pair of bloody scissors.


	55. Chapter 55

Kristina settled at a table inside the diner because this Rosie woman wouldn't sell her any liquor. She seemed very lively and talkative to most of the customers who appeared to be regulars including that Jeff Webber guy she'd seen running around earlier. She just couldn't believe that the shaggy haired man with the stethoscope had spawned Liz. There had been an older sister of hers that had been a good girl and had gotten most of the attention at first before suddenly disappearing.

Liz had a troublemaking streak when she first arrived but apparently had been mellowed by the love of a few men including her on and off husband Lucky. Kristina liked the ex-cop especially when he had that earring thing going but he just hadn't been her type and he'd been totally devoted to Liz in between his pill popping episodes.

Looking around here, a few guys had earrings and scraggly hairdos below their shoulders. Luke sat at a table downing some shots of vodka maybe while a raucous game of poker was going on. Cards were flying between grunts and occasionally an argument broke out. She looked at him intently really trying to understand why some women including his now catatonic wife Laura had believed he was hot. He'd been town hero at least twice and got elected mayor after he married Laura and she'd disappeared in some pea soup type fog that had shrouded the riverfront one night. But all that must have taken place after where they were now. Faith sat next to her sipping what looked like red wine also watching the action.

"Luke's the best poker player in PC," she said, "No one can out bluff him."

Kristina looked at him again in case she had missed something. But she still didn't get it….besides she had heard rumors about the earlier days of Luke's pursuit of Laura when he had some said, had forced himself on her on some dingy disco floor underneath one of those tacky glittering balls. Yet when she'd asked around about it, everyone else had acted puzzled and shook their heads saying he might be the town's residential bad boy but he always saved the town when it was needed.

Right now he had a pile of chips in front of him and talked to a dark haired guy with a swagger and some kind of accent. They didn't seem to be friends or enemies but then without a scorecard you could never tell who was who in PC. Especially from one day to the next. They sat next to an exit which was partially blocked by strings of colorful beads which patrons would push aside as they came and went in the diner.

Probably one of the few things she had learned from her absentee mother.

At the other side, she noticed Laura sitting there with her curly hair and perky face talking to a young woman in a nun's habit who fingered rosary beads while looking intently at her.

Kristina could just about make out what they were saying.

"Sister…I assure you I am so over him," Laura said, "Yes I strayed, yes I did indulge in lustful activities and yes…I cheated on my husband but after we got home I saw him for what he really is…a no good hustler and I went back to Scott."

The nun nodded; even with the habit she looked somewhat familiar to Kristine. Very familiar actually in a way that taunted her…

"I…."

No the name wouldn't come to her so she listened further.

"I've got a real job now…working as the secretary in a highly respectable job, you know ELQ Industries. Most of the people there are very professional, almost everyone except…"

"Yes Laura…"

Laura sighed.

"Except they gave Luke a job there and he won't tell me what he'll be doing but I find it unnerving that he's working for the same company."

The nun clucked.

"But surely you won't succumb to temptations of the flesh again," she said, "After you learned your lesson with him."

Laura's eyes widened.

"Oh no of course not…but this morning I was taking this aerobics class, wearing my new spandex outfit and matching leg warmers with you know, Richard and I saw him…not on purpose…entirely by accident and he was standing by the window watching the class…watching me and my body…"

"I see…it might be the devil working inside of him to tempt you back into sin. You must be strong Laura."

"Oh but I am Sister…very strong. "

Laura sipped her cola again and the nun looked around and her eyes suddenly met with Kristina and the younger girl remembered where she had seen her before….

"Oh my god…"

Faith looked at her suddenly, her brow furrowing.

"What is it Kristina?"

"I know who that nun is…she's tight with my mom..."

Faith's mouth twitched in mischief.

"Yes…I know but that was after she left the order over some scandal…involving a situation…and there was some rope involved."

Kristina barely heard her as she watched the nun pack up her rosary beads and leave Laura, a far cry from the ballsy lawyer with a penchant for leather and lust that she'd turn out to be.

Life never knew normality in this crazy old town.

* * *

Alexis looked at the empty soup bowl, after having scraped the bottom of it preparing bowls for the even more hungry evacuees that had wandered into the emergency shelter. Even with all the dead bodies showing up, it didn't stem the tide of people desperate to escape the flooded streets and the tide of destruction which had swept through PC proper.

Although some of them didn't even look like they were from PC. Some diva lady named Citizen Erica Kane or someone like that had demanded to be at the front of the line before Max had hoisted her up over his shoulder and carried her off kicking and screaming for some guy named Jack to rescue her.

Or maybe it was Jax…where was he anyway? She'd heard whispers that a strong man with blond hair and a permanent tan was out rescuing people from the flood waters on his surfboard. Her heart melted when she thought back to what life had been like with her favorite husband. She had never consummated the marriage with him and she regretted that at times but as much as she dearly loved him as a friend, he just wasn't bad enough to really stir her loins.

She still yearned for Jerry even though she knew it was wrong and that the cad had taken off on her once again. Franco had been admonished by Alice who had sent him to mop the floor again and Robin had told Alexis it might be 20 minutes before the next batch of soup containing her very own special ingredients would be ready to ladle out to the next wave of desperately hungry people.

Sami walked up to her mother, her hands deep in her pockets, looking wistful her hair so messed up Alexis just wished her daughter would find a comb and make herself more presentable. After all, everyone knew she was Alexis' daughter even without the DNA test and it reflected badly on her mother to have her so slovenly dressed at the emergency center. Not to mention hanging out with that thug Jason…but Alexis would remedy that soon enough when she set up a coffee with that nice gentleman Franco who have slaved over the floor with a mop and nary a complaint.

Maybe her daughter would get some work ethic from him and a few other things. But the way her oldest daughter looked at her now, Alexis knew what she was after.

"No Sami…you may not have the gold card, "she said, "Besides, I think all the stores in town are under water now and probably closed."

Sam sighed.

"I've found this awesome dress online that I just got to buy and wear for Jas," she said, "He's seen all my other ones."

Alexis just stared at the girl she had no memory of spawning and wanted to slap her.

"Really Sami, must you think of yourself," she said, "Others here including your mother are working very hard to keep people here alive and all you're doing is bumming for a charge card?"

Sami's mouth dropped open.

"Alexis…I mean mom that's so unfair," she said, "You always complain about my clothes and then you won't help me buy more."

Alexis wished she had Dianne's whip right now but she knew she couldn't think that way, not while she was on trial for that murder she also couldn't recall. So she took a deep breath and tried patience but without some of Spinelli's happy grass, it might just be beyond her at this point in the crisis.

"Sami…mommy's real busy right now," she said, "Why don't you go help Robin in the kitchen with the baking."

Sam frowned.

"Isn't she a doctor," she said, "Why is she baking and not saving lives like Liz?"

Alexis sighed.

"Because she's putting her talents where they are most needed," she said, "which is what you should do…but then again considering what your talents are…"

Sam shuffled away.

"Fine…I'll just go find Jas…"

Alexis watched her daughter go shaking her head wondering if maybe she should get that DNA test run after all.

* * *

Liz popped her head in the kitchen where Robin sat eating what looked like slabs of raw meat in her hands.

"Hi…I'm taking a breather from all the operations I've got lined up," she said, "Any bread or soup left?"

Robin didn't answer immediately, she chewed and swallowed what was in her mouth and then looked up at Liz.

"It's on the stove," she said, "I have bread in the oven but I needed to eat first…I'm so hungry all of a sudden…"

Liz eyed the chunks of beef on a dish next to Robin uneasily.

"I can see that…did you even cook that?"

Robin blinked her eyes.

"Oh it's okay…I feel so much better."

Liz knew not to ask questions in certain situations after having shacked up with Jason in between his time with Sam.

"Okay…look I think I saw Patrick earlier," Liz said, "I might need a second surgeon…do you think you might know where I might find him?"

Robin just shrugged again.

"Somewhere in this building…but he might not be alone…he might be busy."

Liz saw the edge in Robin's eyes and wondered if she knew about how Patrick had been keeping himself busy lately. Maybe so, but just in case, Liz wasn't going to be the one to tell her about it, she just walked to the stove to ladle herself some soup.

Mac walked in looking bleary eyed. Robin looked up at him.

"You look…tired…."

The commissioner sighed.

"I am…there's been so many bodies found here, I can barely keep up," he said, "let alone figure out who's responsible."

Robin shrugged.

"I'm sure you will Mac…you're the smartest man in the entire town…next to my darling husband of course…but if there are answers out there, you will find them."

He just shook his head.

"There's a killer among us Robin and who's to say who will be next?"

Liz shivered as she sat down to slurp her soup so she could rush back into surgery without messing a step.

"It gives me the creeps," she said, "but it can't be any of my patients so it must be someone who's not sick from the plague or injured from the flood or any altercations."

Mac just looked forlorn.

"I don't have the tools I need to do investigations," he said, "I dust for prints but what good does that do?"

Robin looked at him.

"The killer will reveal himself or herself," she said, "They always do….in time."

But Mac looked at the girl he had raised from her impressionable childhood and didn't feel so sure about that.

Evil had once again returned to PC unless of course it never really left.


	56. Chapter 56

When had life gotten so crazy, she asked herself, and when had the whole climate of PC changed?

Brenda sat in the corner she'd been dragged towards to cool off after her sudden catfight with that hell bitch Carly. She looked at some jagged tears in her designer clothing that Sonny's credit card had bought for her. They had been planning their wedding and he had to go conduct some business with his (cough) importing (cough) business. After she pouted a bit, he gave her some plastic to make up for it. Since PC's own line of boutiques wouldn't do it for her, he also gave her free reign of his Lear jet and she went off to NYC to do her shopping with some exclusive designers instead.

It took her a while but she found an outfit or two that she liked so she plopped down the card and took them back to Sonny to model for him, knowing by the way his unblinking eyes took her in, that he desired her most of his harem of women.

So she had gotten the wedding preparation back on track but then that witch Carly had crashed into his life so terribly jealous of what he had with her. Carly couldn't be happy enough with Jax and her children by three different men. No, she had to poach in Brenda's territory and go after her man.

The tension had been building between the two divas for weeks, maybe months and they had been circling each other like caged lionesses until something between them had just exploded in the rescue shelter. Brenda knew she had been getting the upper hand when the piece of trailer trash had lunged for her with claws out until the two of them had been pulled apart and thrust into separate corners to cool off.

Brenda didn't like that at all, because if she sat in the corner forgotten, then how could everyone look at her and fawn over her beauty and charisma?

No, there would be some other woman who would be the center of the attention and how wrong was that? She looked up to where the quarantine tape had separated them from certain doom. Liz was frantically trying to revive some unnamed and unimportant PC resident with CPR while Maxie assisted but to no avail.

Brenda cleared her throat.

"Ahem…."

Both Liz and Maxie looked at her.

"I need to get out of here," Brenda said, "because I'm going crazy sitting here."

Maxie looked up at Liz who shook her head.

"No Brenda….you represent too much of a danger to yourself and the general population."

Brenda snorted.

"How could that be," she said, "I'm the one that was attacked here. Besides people are getting murdered I heard and that's the person who needs to be locked up. It's probably Carly doing it since Sonny's lost to her forever."

Liz and Maxie looked at each other. Brenda didn't have any patience with either of them.

"I'm demanding to be released."

Liz smiled at her.

"Brenda…we're not holding you prisoner. We just think you might need some time to calm down. Mac is thinking about declaring martial law in PC and anyone who fights could get executed on the spot."

Brenda widened her eyes.

"What…for defending myself from that she bitch?"

Liz looked at her gravely, her scrubs covered with drying blood.

"Brenda…these are tough times that try all of us," she said, "We have to put all our petty grudges and needs aside to work together or none of us will survive."

Brenda just tilted her head flicking her hair back, showing off the bling that Sonny had bought her.

"I just want to get out of here," she said, "I'm waiting for Sonny to return and fly in one of his Lear Jets to take us both away from this nightmare."

Liz sighed.

"Brenda, there's nowhere to land a plane," she said, "The whole town's underwater except for us."

Brenda just sighed.

"I'm sure Sonny will find a way."

Liz just shook her head and returned to her patient, leaving Brenda there to contemplate how she was going to get out of this crazy place.

* * *

Alexis just shook her head at the line of people trying to get seconds on Robin's freshly brewed soup. She knew that Robin had slipped a secret ingredient in it but the younger woman remained mum on exactly what it was. As long as it kept the masses quiet, that's all that mattered to Alexis. She really didn't want to spend any time thinking about anyone else. Right now, she just had too many of her own problems to face…the least not remembering where she had left her daughters.

Then Mac wanting to go steady with her which only led her to have wicked thoughts about Jerry, who popped in and out of her hectic life. Wooing her to romp with him on some hard piece of furniture before fading into the mist. She wondered if he could possibly be responsible for the trail of dead bodies that had followed her to the Brownstone building. But then he'd been giving it to her good when one of the bodies had been discovered…did that make him guilty or innocent? Her blood heated up at the thought that she could have been cavorting on the edge of danger with another killer.

Franco wandered over to her with his mop, and this time he had placed a beret on his mop of hair and with the goatee….she licked her lips. No wait, this was the man she wanted to set up with her oldest daughter.

"Hello darling….you look rather pensive standing there," he noted.

She smiled at him indulgently, flipping her hair back.

"I'm just busy doing my best to improve morale in this place," she said, "I'm really quite heroic that way."

Franco appeared to think about that and nodded.

"Yes, I can see that," he said, "I've been watching you."

She arched her brows.

"Oh you have….have you…."

He eyed her intently, leaning on his mop.

"Yes…I'm an artist you see," he said, "and I'm always looking for some inspiration."

She scrutinized him carefully. Exactly what her daughter Sam needed, someone to inspire her to dress better so that she could go out and get a job….then maybe she'd ditch her loser boyfriend Jason. Yes, a man like the earnest one standing in front of her would do wonders to turn Sam towards a better path.

Lulu walked up to Alex and looked over at Franco, then she smiled, twirling her hair.

"You're kind of cute," she said, "Not as good looking as Johnny Wonderful of course."

Franco looked puzzled.

"Johnny Who…?"

Lulu rolled her eyes.

"You've never heard of him," she said, "He's so incredibly wonderful to me and I can't believe I'm so lucky to have him."

Franco smiled.

"That's very nice….Lulu…."

She looked at him, her eyes narrowing.

"You know my name?"

He nodded.

"I know all the names of the people I need to know," he said, "and you my darling Lulu are near the top of the list."

Her eyes widened and what looked like joy filled her eyes.

"Oooh….gee thanks," she said, jumping up and down, "I'll write that down in my diary."

"You do that…darling," he said, "but I have to tell you something about Johnny…I saw him…."

Alexis broke in.

"Listen…Franco….I really would you to meet my oldest daughter…."

"You don't look old enough to have a daughter for me to meet."

Alexis blushed and felt her knees weaken.

"That's very nice of you to say Franco," she said, "Maybe if you could just meet my oldest daughter and me for some coffee."

He tilted his head thinking about it. Lulu reacted because her mind had finally caught up to his words.

"What is this about Johnny Wonderful that you want to tell me?"

Franco stroked his goatee eying her. '

"I saw him with…."

Alexis interrupted him again.

"Excuse me," she said, giving a look to Lulu, "but I was talking with him about my daughter Sam."

Lulu folded her arms.

"Oh yeah…I just saw her pawing Jason in the hallway," she said, "Really they just need to get a room."

Alexis just looked at Lulu.

"What about you and your boyfriend," she said, "Does your mother know what you're doing…no she can't…"

Lulu just looked at her so Alexis turned to Franco.

"You'll be perfect….well if you shave that beard off and maybe get a haircut first…and then buy yourself some nice clothes…."

Franco just smiled and Alexis nodded, happy with her own brilliance.

"Yes…and maybe if you got some new shoes…."

Lulu just rolled her eyes again.

"I need to know what you were saying about my boyfriend."

Franco blinked his eyes.

"Come with me…and I will tell you," he said, "There are too many pairs of ears here."

Lulu crossed her arms.

"I don't know if I want to go off with you alone," she said, "How do I know you're not the murderer?"

Alexis just sighed.

"Does he look like a murderer to you Lulu?"

Mac walked up to the group looking very disturbed.

"What is it Mac," Alexis asked, "Did you find the killer?"

Mac shook his head.

"No I haven't and I think the killer's taunting me," he said, holding up a miniature police car, "goading at us for being one step or more behind him."

Lulu's eyes widened.

"That's quite dastardly of him," she said, "but maybe it's a clue."

Mac nodded gravely.

"That's what I'm thinking," he said, "but it's got to be someone who's wandering these corridors and rooms as one of us."

Lulu nodded.

"That makes sense but if that's the case, then which one of us is the killer?"

Franco raised his hand.

"I think it's usually the one who's got the least imagination," he said, "and who has no alibi."

Mac looked at him and nodded.

"Good point," he said, "I'll pass that on to my investigators."

Alexis tilted her head at Mac.

"Why don't you let him help you with the investigation," she said, "He's really an industrious young man."

Mac looked Franco over and then nodded.

"Okay, I'll do that," he said, "Come along with me…"

Franco put down his mop and did just that while Alexis watched him go. Lulu arched her brows.

"Do you really think he can help Mac solve the murders?"

Alexis nodded.

"I don't think it can hurt," she said, "I'm a very good judge of character."

* * *

The woman with the veil stood off in the sidelines watching the activity around her and never saying a word. No one paid much attention to her because they were busy, and there were others who had cloaked blankets around them. She didn't concern herself with what the peasants were doing, she had her own agenda after all. As she gazed at her Cartier watch once again, she knew soon would come the time to launch her plan that she had spent months building.

She might be invisible to most people here now but soon they would know exactly who she was as she enacted her plan of revenge.


	57. Chapter 57

Kristina remained in her seat as more people walked into the diner. Many that she didn't recognize and others that she almost did, but their names eluded her memory. Faith sat by her sipping her drink saying nothing.

"What, you heard that from Nurse Amy," a dark haired nurse said, "She's such a blabbermouth. I'm so not a tramp…not like…"

The dark haired nurse's eyes wandered over to the bubbly redhead who sat with her white cap perched on her head at the counter eating a salad.

Rose refreshed her cup of coffee and sat down beside her.

"Annie….you know if you hadn't teased Jeff so mercilessly, he might have stuck around."

Annie's eyes darkened.

"How could you say that," she said, "All I asked is that he wait until we were married. Was that too much to ask? Did he really have to go cheat on me in the scrub room?"

Rose just sat there patiently, her role after all was to keep the java flowing, the population of PC in a good mood and to dole out advice when needed. But she just sighed inside the facade she had created for herself as the grieving widow. After all, no one asked how her sex life had been since her much older husband died.

"Jeffrey's obviously a very virile man and he attracts women," Rose reasoned, "To be with him means having to deal with that part of him."

Annie sighed because she hadn't envisioned it that way at all. She had truly believed that once they got engaged, they would get married and then they would convene to the marital bed. She'd be dressed in white and he'd be…well it'd be just perfect but reality clearly had different plans for them. She so wanted to remain pure and thus true for her true love but even in her mind she had her doubts…and when she felt them came on, she heard a song inside her mind that sounded something like this.

"_Good girls don't and Annie won't…and you all know what I mean…."_

She'd clamp her hands over her ears and yell at the voices to shut up but during the daylight hours, she felt calmer and more rational about dealing with her moral decisions.

"I had worked so hard to save myself," she said, "I mean I kept Joe at arm's length for months because in my heart, I knew that my chastity belonged to Jeff."

Rosie didn't need to be reminded of that because within her wholesome almost maternal behind her years attitude, she harbored lustful thoughts as well. Some of which were highly…sinful.

She lusted after her own stepson after all, not that she could ever let anyone ever know that.

Suddenly Kristina looked up and saw a young man with dark hair come in the room wearing glasses and carrying a banjo which he began strumming as soon as he entered into the diner. A few people looked up to watch him but others kept on with their conversations.

Soon it became obvious that the young man could sing as well.

"Annie Logan eat your heart out, Bobbie Spencer that's too bad….I was the best man you could ever had…"

His warbles reached the table where Annie and Rose were seated and Annie's lips just pursed before her jaw dropped. She stood up from her chair.

"Joe…how, how could you?"

The man just looked at her not blinking his eyes and still strumming his banjo. Annie, her cheeks all flushed walked up to him and slapped his face hard with her hand before stomping on out of the diner. Joe seemed nonplussed and kept strumming his banjo, looking over at his stepmother, with an earnest smile on his face.

"And as for stepmother Rose…."

She shook her head at him.

"Joe…stop it…I have lived with what happened between us for five years," she said, "Your father went to his grave without knowing the truth."

Joe just looked at her.

"But…don't you want to hear the rest of it?"

She shook her head sadly.

"No we must continue as star crossed lovers of sorts," she said, "lest PC find out the sordid truth about the both of us…."

Kristina listened but the two of them lowered their voices and she couldn't make out the rest of it. But this Annie chick sounded so lame…and Joe, well he looked like a dork. Maybe things weren't so bad in PC right now. Faith glanced over at her, a smile on her lips.

"Everyone has secrets," she said, "and often those hidden in the past have a way of bleeding out in the present."

Kristina supposed that might be true but what did it have to do with her and her own life?

She looked over as the curly haired wild eyed Luke sashayed over to the redheaded nurse which she knew must be his younger sister Bobbie. She shook her head at him when she first saw him approach.

"Oh no you don't Luke," she said, "You are not going to get another dime out of me. You really need to go out and get an honest job."

Luke's eyes blinked.

"I got a job…I'm working for Eddy Q in his corporate office on special assignment."

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah right…like I'd ever believe that."

He grew more animated.

"It's true Bobbie…I've really reformed this time."

Kristina wondered why Bobbie still hung around with the guy who had pimped her out when she'd been a teenager according to the gossip she'd heard but then the blood ties between family members were often bizarre. Her own family was a prime example of that.

"I'll believe that Luke when I see it," Bobbi said, "Now just go on back to your illicit poker game."

Luke looked at her for a moment and then slunk on back to where the poker game still was going strong.

Rose just sighed as she came over and refreshed Kristina's soda before heading back to her hideout in the kitchen.

* * *

Alexis thought it was long past time to just make a break for it. Surely her home must have been high enough to avoid being washed away by the flood waters. She had been wearing some damn apron and ladling soup out for hours and still the lines grew longer. Each time the level of soup in the bowl grew low, Robin would come out with a fresh vat and replenish it, not leaving Alexis any time to breathe in between.

Let alone sneak off and smoke some happy grass just to get her through this ordeal. Not that she could find any given that her dealer, that nice Spinelli guy, was currently in a coma from some sort of unexplained pathogen infection. The reason for the quarantine, Alexis reasoned not that she really paid attention to the developments that took place during this crisis. She had her own problems to keep her busy enough.

Mac had left with Franco to go look for clues that might lead to whoever killed all those young women. He had looked troubled when he had left but had mentioned that maybe they could get together for coffee and some of Robin's freshly baked brownies later. Alexis just smiled at him and then returned to ladling more of the dreadful soup.

Occasionally she heard some banging noises coming from inside the kitchen, some slamming of metal objects and occasionally a blood curling scream and a sound like an animal…no she couldn't bother herself with wondering about anything outside her own life crisis.

Dianne sidled up to her, her hair a bit frazzled.

"Hey Alexis have you seen my whip anywhere?"

Alexis shrugged.

"I think Alice was using it earlier on the help," she said, "but really Dianne do you think you should have brought it here?"

Dianne frowned.

"I thought I'd need it," she said, "You know I was really hoping that Max wouldn't take my decision to dump him so personally so we could still do the whole friends with benefits thing."

Alexis sighed.

"The man loved you," she said, "and you just played with his feelings…before you crushed them under your six inch stilettos."

Dianne arched her brows.

"Since when have you been so sentimental," she said, "You the one who wants Valentine's Day banned in PC."

Alexis sighed.

"I still think it should be banished from the calendar but Max…there's just this little boy sweetness about him."

Dianne rolled her eyes.

"Don't make me feel any older…"

Alexis licked her lips.

"There's times when I could almost go for a man like that," she said, "if only he could be a little bit bad."

"You mean psychotic?"

"That too but Dianne, were you always like this, always a ball buster when it came to men?"

Dianne grew silent, her hands fidgeting at her sides.

"No…you might not believe this Alexis but I used to be much more….pure."

Alexis frowned, not able to believe what her ears had just heard.

"You used to be what?"

Dianne sighed.

"I used to be…much different," she said, "until the scandal broke out years ago and my life changed forever."

That intrigued Alexis enough to stop thinking about herself for a moment.

"What happened?"

Dianne shook her head with a smile.

"It's not a story to be told with such circumstances," she said, "and not without a few pints of whisky to chase it down with."

Alexis listened confused at her friend's reticence but didn't push her.

"Besides what I've got to tell Robin's going to break her heart when she finds out about her cheating SOB of a husband."

Alexis frowned again.

"What do you mean," she said, "She's in the kitchen baking cookies…I think."

Dianne nodded.

"Robin's always been such a good domestic," she said, "and she never did time in the Q dungeon…"

Alexis looked at her suddenly.

"The Q what," she said, "What did you just say?"

Dianne shrugged and just smiled.

"Nothing…"

Olivia walked up to them, soaked to the skin with her outfit highlighting her body. Alexis didn't approve of that.

"Olivia…dear…you really need to go change your clothes. There are children present."

"I'm sorry…I just went outside for some fresh air and a tidal wave nearly knocked me down."

Alexis frowned.

"But I thought the flood waters were receding," she said, "the crisis is mostly over, we just have to stay here and drive each other crazier before we are released on our own recognizance."

Olivia shook her head splattering water everywhere.

"Oh no, there's at least ten feet or so of water out there," she said, "I think we're going to be here for weeks yet."

Alexis and Dianne looked at each other. Surely Olivia couldn't be serious. Then Alice suddenly appeared and in her hand, she welded Dianne's missing whip. Crack, it split the air right over Alexis' head.

"Why'd you do that?"

Alice just looked at an indignant Alexis.

"You've been slacking at your duties here again," she said, "Back to work or you're going to get 10 lashes out back."

Dianne nodded.

"Alice I didn't know you were into all that," she said, "but you sure know how to weld a whip."

Alice just shrugged and stood her ground and the others started breaking up to return to looking busy again.

Alexis returned to the soup table to keep ladling out endless bowls of Robin's concoction but every so often her eyes would wander to the door leading to the outside world and freedom.

While the clattering in the kitchen continued.


	58. Chapter 58

Somebody had decided to put up Halloween decorations up in the evacuation center and no one knew who. Few of the people who had evacuated during the great flood that had swept through PC even remembered that the holiday had been approaching.

However, Franco didn't include himself among the majority of the population on any issue let alone that involving his favorite time of year. If Alice didn't lord over him with that whip, he might actually be having more fun with the holiday. Handing out some devilish tricks and some treats laced with deadly poison of course. But she had been lord of the kitchen except for that fetching young doctor with the strangest looking eyes, the ones that turned ruby red when no one was looking.

No one had noticed but he had because Franco noticed everything. Even Jason and Sam had been too absorbed with each other to notice that he walked among their midst. Not that Sami cared about anything else but getting it on with the nearest bad boy with plastic in his wallet. But even Jason had been too preoccupied to notice the man welding the mop in the living area.

By the time they all noticed, it'd be too late…he thought but as he looked around the Brownstone, he felt more than just a little unsettled. Everything had gone well according to his plan including luring that tone deaf bimbo into the basement where he soon tied her up but…he sensed something menacing in the air inside the building.

Something more so than him and he didn't like that. Franco didn't much like being upstaged by an unknown force even darker than himself. But he sensed evil, both dank and damp everywhere around him. A pair of soulless eyes and merciless hands…but when he thought he had a stronger sense of its identity, it eluded him once again, vaporizing almost like a thick fog.

"Dear man?"

He looked up suddenly and saw Olivia approach him. She looked attractive in her tight sweater and the jeans that hugged her figure and he sensed the hunger in her eyes for younger men.

Men like him though inside, Franco felt hundreds of years older than his youthful dimple cheeked appearance on the outside.

"What is it Olivia?"

She smiled at his recognition of her.

"Ah yes…you look so industrious over here with your mop and I know how dominating Alice can be at times so if you want to take a break and join me for a drink."

His eyes twinkled.

"What kind of drink would that be?"

She shrugged looking coquettishly at him.

"Oh…maybe some wine from the cellar or that scotch that Alice keeps hidden in the pantry…but you look like you could use someone to talk with…share a few laughs…it's been such a depressing day."

He nodded, leaning on his mop.

"Yes it has been…and your invitation is so tempting…I'll think about it."

She seemed happy enough about that.

"You're just so cute you know…wholesome and…"

"Youthful?"

She smiled even more broadly.

"And so helpful," she said, "It could be really good between us you know…I've kept my body in very good shape."

"I can see that….and I sense that you are uncomfortable when you see other women around him."

Her eyes narrowed at him.

"Who…?"

Franco appeared to think, clearly enjoying himself.

"Sonny, the Mafioso…or so he believes," he said, "but he's really a pathetic little man with a Daddy complex though not as big as his brother Ric."

Olivia nodded.

"You know you're right," she said, "It's very wise of you to see through Sonny's foibles since he works so hard to hide them beneath his tough guy exterior."

Franco rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You were with him a long time?"

She shrugged again.

"Too long…he's really too old for me I know," she said, "I'm into younger guys not so jaded by the world…and who keep themselves physically…fit."

"I see…that's certainly wise on your part," Franco said, "Perhaps if we get together later on…we can come up with some rigorous exercise to enhance all kinds of fitness."

She nodded happily.

"Sure thing baby…see you later…"

Olivia buzzed back to the stove and Franco with a smile on his face returned to mopping the floor while whistling a tune.

* * *

Alexis looked at her watch, wondering how long this flood could possibly last. They'd been holed up together inside this insane asylum of a Brownstone turned evacuation center for what felt like days…weeks even.

Their population had been reduced by a couple due to these untimely and very brutal murders. But it still felt like people crammed wall to wall. She hadn't seen her mysterious paramour Jerry in several hours and she'd watched as that tramp dressed up like a cougar or vice versa named Olivia coming onto that charming young man with the mop.

The one she had hoped to set up with her own eldest wayward daughter who at this moment was probably pressed up against some wall in some darkened hallway somewhere fornicating with that no good lobotomized mobster want to be. She had wanted so much better for her daughter at least since remembering she'd had one .As long as Sami didn't get pregnant again right away, as Alexis still considered herself too young to be a grandmother.

She glanced over at the woman with the veil in the corner watching everything around her so intently. Something about her looked so familiar…but then never mind, she really didn't have time to think about or worry herself over some meaningless stranger. She had her own problems to focus on and she really wished that others would focus on them too.

"Alexis…"

She looked up and saw Mac approaching her wearing a hard hat and what looked like a fireman's coat. Did PC even have a fire department, Alexis couldn't remember. After all the last time Jax's hotel had burned down, who had been around to put it out? She tried hard to remember but any memories inside her head of that time just proved to be elusive.

"What is it Mac," she said, "Did you find the killer yet?"

He sighed.

"No I haven't but my men are dusting for prints right now," he said, "and looking everywhere for clues."

She shook her head.

"Mac…that's not going to get you anywhere," she said, "I told you that the nice young gentleman with the mop could help you."

Mac gave her a pointed look from beneath his hard hat.

"Now Alexis…it takes an awful lot of training to be good at investigation, not just anyone can do it."

She rolled her eyes at him, somewhat flirtatiously.

"I know that…but he seems to be really bright Mac and he's enthusiastic…much more driven than most men his age."

Mac looked at her warily.

"Alexis…what's your interest in him?"

She looked at him blankly.

"What…what do you mean by that?"

He just looked at her carefully.

"Is he related to you…like another kid you had and then forgot about…or is he your…"

Alexis pursed her lips and her body tensed.

"Don't even say it…I have full recognition of all the children I've birthed…I think."

Mac looked at her as if he didn't seem all too sure about that but Alexis refused to back down. Of all the….she had always viewed Mac as this kind of sweet, mild-mannered honest man…not her type at all but then again flirting for months over coffee had gotten her through some bad patches when her entourage of bad boys weren't around to soothe her burn.

"Alexis…that's what you said after Kristina was born all those years ago."

She frowned.

"No…it wasn't that long ago, about five years…I think give or take one…it just seems to have all gone by so quickly and my little girl is growing up like a bean sprout…"

Mac rubbed his chin looking at her, asking himself once again if it were possible…after all Alexis had killed before…once…maybe twice….and maybe….no, no he couldn't think like that. The killer just couldn't be the woman standing in front of him nibbling at her lip as she spoke with him.

Sam rushed up to them just then, holding her baggy pants up to her waist. Alexis and Mac both looked at her puzzled.

"What's going on Sami," Mac asked.

Sam just breathed heavily, placing her hand over her low-cut shirt.

"I can't find him anywhere," she said, "You know Jas…he's disappeared again."

Alexis felt relief at the news…hopefully Jason had finally met the violent end that was due him for pursuing a life of crime and corrupting her daughter not necessarily in that order.

Mac of course spoke from a more rational perspective.

"I'm sure he's just fine," he said, "He's probably just out hanging around somewhere…maybe he's with Sonny."

Sam's eyes widened.

"No he can't be….don't you know…they broke it off a while ago."

Mac's eyes blinked. No he hadn't known about that but then as the PC commissioner, he was too busy working to pay attention to every on and off relationship within its boundaries.

"I didn't know that but whatever has transpired is between them," Mac said, "in the meantime, I've got a killer to find."

Sam stuck her hand inside her blouse and fiddled with it.

"Oh I can help you Mac…if you'll just give me a chance," she said, "Let's get started and maybe we'll find Jas on the way."

Alexis hedged.

"Sami I've got this nice young gentleman I want you to meet first."

Her daughter sighed.

"Later mother…if it's one of your castoffs, I'm no longer interested in such lean pickings."

Alexis' mouth swung open. Surely she hadn't spent years raising her daughter the right way to have her mouth back at her like that.

"Sami…"

"Mother I have to help Mac find the killer and you've got to find another man to bed like you just did with Uncle Jerry."

Alexis blanched, she thought her on and off again fling with the man with many names and unseemly professions had been covert but apparently not…she wondered idly how many people knew about the two of them.

She started counting on one hand but then looked up and saw Robin carrying out another tray of delicious smelling cookies, the special recipe with the special kick in them. Her mouth wandered. She'd had enough of this dreadfully nice man and her skank of a daughter so she excused herself to fetch some of them to eat.

Lulu in her poodle skirt headed her off at the pass and reached for the luscious mounds of baked dough with sprinkles on top first and they both partook of the delicacy while Robin stood over them and watched.

Hiding her hands behind her back where the claws began to sprout from her fingertips while from a distance a killer watched.


	59. Chapter 59

Kristina didn't understand the world around her at all, because it looked so much like the town she had grown up in yet it didn't look the same at all. She felt like Alice after she had slipped and fallen down the rabbit's hole right into Wonderland.

She sat outside the tall glass office building that she knew belonged to Eddie Q and the other crazy leaves on his family tree. Faith had disappeared off in the woodwork somewhere leaving her alone for a while. So she had strolled down the main thoroughfare looking into the old shops which sold tie dyed clothing and love beads, and in one corner store what looked like bongs. Her eyes had widened as she noticed how they came in all different shapes and sizes and thought. She saw the woman who had been called Amy slip inside the bong shop and disappear behind the string of psychedelic bead that blocked the entrance.

But Kristina kept walking until she reached the office building where she sat down somewhat bewildered at everything she had witnessed so far. Then she heard some loud voices come from just inside the building as its double doors swung open. There she saw Luke with his thick curly hair and what looked like a pair of rimmed glasses which accentuated his casual dress. He was followed by Laura with her luscious golden blond locks and dimpled cheeks.

Only now they weren't so dimpled because she looked pissed off at Luke. He tried to grab her arm and she eluded his grasp looking like she wanted to punch him out.

"Laura my little chickadee," Luke said, "I'm positive that I'm right about the Ice Princess being located somewhere on the waterfront."

She fumed at him.

"Why are you going off about that ugly assed piece of rock again Luke," she said, "I'm a serious business woman now with a career and goals for living my life. I want that house and that white picket fence damn it."

"Laura…my little sweetness…"

She spun on him and her sweet face grew ugly.

"Don't you dare try to sweet talk me Lucas Lorenzo Spencer…I'm so on to you and all your games and tricks. You want me to take off from my important dictation for Mr. Quartermaine so we can go search for this chunk of rock…you're crazy like your floozy of a sister."

Luke's face grew serious.

"Hey leave Bobbie out of it. She pays all my bills."

"Yeah, because you whored out your own sister Luke," she said, "how do you think that makes me feel? You didn't even tell me that while we were dancing in that department store like Fred and what's her name…."

Luke's face softened its edges just a bit.

"Laura my petunia, I am trying to shield you from the more unseemly sides of my life…to help you maintain your innocence in a world filled with fallen angels…"

She looked confused.

"Full of fallen what…Luke you're not making any sense…again."

Kristina watched the heated exchanged so much so the air crackled with electricity like a storm approached. She had grown up listening to all the stories told about PC's most legendary couple…read all the information provided at the exhibits at the local museum about Luke and Laura…but what she was hearing now…somehow she didn't remember it going quite like she heard now.

"Luke…I told you if you go hunting for that Ice Queen or whatever with your poker playing lowlife buddies, I'm going to tell on you to Mr. Quartermaine."

His face grew mischievous.

"Why do you think he and Alex really hired me sugar plum?"

Now Laura looked befuddled and Kristina wondered if she had always been this dense. Hard to tell because most of the time Kristina had been alive, she'd been catatonic. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps filled the street and then a hail of gunfire broke out next to the building. Luke pushed Laura to the ground rolling on top of her while bullet struck the double doors behind them.

Suddenly they stopped and Kristina hadn't realized until then that she'd taken some cover herself. But then she'd had some practice herself with quick evasive maneuvers in modern day PC.

Laura pushed at Luke to get off of her.

"Luke…if you start doing anything naughty I'm so going to report you to Commissioner Bob."

Luke just stared at her clearly unflustered.

"My little daisy, it's times like these there's more I'd like to do," he said, "but we're in serious danger now because some bad people tried to take us out."

Laura swallowed noisily.

"You mean they tried to kill us?"

Luke nodded and the footsteps sounded like they were coming closer and they both heard a ratcheting of a gun. He pushed Laura down again.

"I'm not going to let them do anything to stop us from finding the Ice Princess," he said, "I promise…."

Then suddenly the man with the gun came into view and Luke and Laura just stared as they saw his face.

Kristina recognized the man as a much younger looking Alan Quartermaine dressed like he were a ninja. Luke and Laura just looked at him as Alan looking mightily pissed off reloaded his shotgun with a fresh cartridge of ammo.

"Alan…what….what did I ever do to you?"

Alan ignored Luke and Laura, looking straight ahead. Determination riding his face, his muscles tensing as he looked around him wildly.

"Where the hell is that bastard, Rick," he yelled suddenly, "I'm going to kill him and that adulterous wife of mine as soon as I find them."

Luke and Laura looked at each other as Alan sped off the alley as if he'd never been there.

Kristina's eyes just widened, what kind of town had PC been and why had the staircase brought her back in time here instead of some nice exotic location like a tropical island.

The answers whatever they might be didn't reveal themselves.

* * *

Alexis was so beyond bored at this point. After all, it had been hours maybe even days since she had gotten any. Jerry still hadn't returned like he had promised her, the cad and Sami had been chasing after Jason again so she could show him some carnal delights. What kind of daughter had she raised, she asked herself not for the first time. After all, had Alexis ever sold her nubile body at that age for the next credit card?

She still had no idea where Kristina had run off to and Molly, bless her little heart had been handing out blankets to the shivering flood survivors a while back. Even eating some of Robin's latest batch of magical brownies hadn't done much to take the edge off of her.

Monica walked up to her looking like she had just left the beauty salon. How the hell had the former chief of staff found time to fix herself up like she was dressed to kill, from her curly hair piled on top of her head, to her skin tight bodysuit to her six inch heels. Somewhere in hell, Alexis knew that Monica's ex, Alan Q, was staring at her right now his beady eyes filled with lust.

"Monica….what…?"

Monica just looked at her pointedly.

"Alexis…I'm looking for Johnny Wonderful have you seen him?"

Alexis folded her arms.

"Why are you asking me," she said, "Why don't you ask Olivia…Dianne or one of those…those cougars as they're called."

Monica shrugged dismissively.

"Dianne finished with him a while ago," she said, "she'd left him tied up to the bed upstairs but he got himself loose and wandered down here."

Alexis shook her head.

"I didn't see him and it's not like I'd be hiding him," she said, "You know I only like the really bad boys…"

Monica smiled.

"I can make any good boy go bad," she said, "Just look what I did with Ned…until you ruined him."

Alexis narrowed her eyes at Monica.

"I did no such thing," she said, "Ned was nice…too nice…but the longer I stayed with his niceness the more smothered I felt by it...surely you understand, after all you married Alan."

"Yes I did, but he's dead now and he wouldn't want me to join a convent."

Alexis wasn't too sure about that. The way she heard it, Alan had been obsessed with his wife to the point of near insanity and frankly when Alexis looked at Monica, she just didn't get it.

"He'd want me to enjoy my life," Monica said, "to go out and meet people…Alan Jr. would want that too."

Alexis had thought that Alan Jr. had turned out to be as crazy when he'd kidnapped her children and Carly's with help from that psychotic mafia moll Faith. But both of them had died hadn't they? Alexis couldn't quite remember because once she got Kristina back she really hadn't followed the rest of that episode having more than enough on her plate.

Johnny walked up then to Monica, smiling at her.

"Hi baby…looking for me," he asked.

She smiled at him, sliding her arms around his waist.

"I knew you'd come looking for me," she said, "Let's go have some fun together."

He smiled broadly.

"Lulu's busy with Robin in the kitchen so we've got some time."

Alexis just stared at the two of them, not believing it. She thought Lulu to be the typical dumb blond twit who made her mother look like a genius but the girl with the poodle skirt truly believed that Johnny Wonderful loved and had been faithful to her.

"Then let's go…."

Alexis wrinkled her nose in disgust as Monica squeezed Johnny's ass with one of her hands as they walked out of the room. She noticed that the man with the mop, Franco was watching them leave…his eyes filled with calculation for an instant before he saw Alexis and smiled at her.

"Does that upset you?"

Alexis just cast him a look and shook her head.

"Hardly…what they do is their business…I just feel some sympathy for Lulu…the man she loves is just a scoundrel…as much of a skank as if he were a woman and slept with my ex-husband."

Franco just smiled.

"But I thought you were going to introduce me to your beautiful daughter Sami," he said, "I so looked forward to meeting her."

Alexis blinked her eyes.

"Oh yes of course…we're doing coffee next week when this is all over right?"

He smiled more wildly.

"Yes of course….I'm so looking forward to it," he said, "I've been on the dating scene and well it just never works out for nice guys like myself…all the women out there, the real pretty ones, they all want bad boys…guys with an edge, a homicidal glint in their eyes…"

Alexis sighed.

"You poor dear sweet man, clearly lost in the shuffle," she said, "This drive for bad boys…it's just a character flaw my Sami has that I'm trying to cure her of. Maybe you can help me…"

Franco nodded.

"I'm sure that I can give it my best shot and we'll see what happens…."

Apart from the two of them, a ghostly Georgia watched, her translucent hand over her horrified face. She tried to scream out the word, no don't listen to that psychopathic creep in bohemian artist's clothing but nothing came out, not even a breath of wind.


	60. Chapter 60

Note: If you are a fan of General Hospital, better write in to ABC and tell them that. The show's rumored to face cancellation in 2012.

* * *

Alexis grumbled as the soup line which had been going strong for what three days and three nights now continued unabated and unless she was wrong, it appeared that some of the faces looking at her now looked familiar. Not that she paid much attention to those she served because she had her own problems after all. What with her oldest daughter turning out to be such a freeloading tramp and her daughter by the mobster wannabe having disappeared.

If it wasn't for her best and brightest light in her life, Molly, Alexis would have given up all hope that she would ever be able to figure any of her children out. But right now, Robin had just sent in Lulu with the latest batch of soup to feed every hungry mouth in the state it seemed. Her back ached, her legs felt stiff and she felt her libido once again threaten to overtake her.

Alexis was like a Vulcan, she only thought about sex roughly every seven years and then during a brief period, she would kill to have it. Not literally but when a bad boy came into sight, she went on the prowl like the feline she had proven to be…trying out different morsels before deciding whether or not she wanted second helpings. Ned, well he'd been sweet and honestly he had almost turned her what with his puppy dog eyes, scruffy dark hair and earnest demeanor. But she'd run like the wind to leave him at the altar. Sonny, well she'd done her elaborate and increasingly frantic mating dance with him that started off with batty eyes and round after round of verbal sparring in the ring.

Sonny being not of the intellectual model could barely keep up with her verbal acuity but his smoldering manner had won her over that one night on his threadbare couch. Then there had been his cad of a half brother whose eyes had wandered away about five minutes after they conceived Molly including at that tramp of a daughter.

Jax? He's been built like a triathelete, in all the right places, enough to make any cougar drool but he'd been too nice to tangle with in between the sheets. So she had just married him instead.

The town mayor? She'd tangled up with him but it couldn't have been too memorable because she didn't remember it until someone had told her they read about it in some scandal rag.

Mac…no she'd been flirting with him showing off her verbal wit for the past five years and no bite yet.

And then there'd been Craig…Jerry or whatever his name really was…not that it mattered because when they were together, she wasn't thinking about which alias used.

"Alexis…"

She looked up flipping her hair back and saw Lulu looking at her.

"Have you seen…"

Alexis tried to control her temper and failed.

"No I have not seen Johnny Wonderful…Lulu did it ever occur to you that if you look up and he's gone…he's probably with another woman?"

Lulu's lips begin to quiver.

"No….I….no he would never do that to be because he's so…"

Alexis sighed deeply.

"Because he's so wonderful…it's called being a man Lulu. They are all bad even the good ones, they will lie to you, they will steal from you, drive you crazy and they'll cheat on you and you'll walk on them on the worst day of your life and find them messing up your new carpet with your daughter."

Lulu didn't know how to respond to that. Alexis didn't pay much attention to that but continued, after a brief pause.

"I'm beginning to think the only good man is a dead man."

Lulu did recoil from that pronouncement.

"Alexis…how could you say such a thing?"

"Experience dear…plenty of experience," she said, "now excuse me but I think I need to go back and find a knife…"

Lulu's eyes widened like saucers.

"To cut some of these breadsticks up," Alexis said, "I think Robin left them in the oven too long."

Lulu exhaled and then resumed her search for Johnny Wonderful. Out of sight, out of mind as far as Alexis was concerned, she had more important matters to think about after all.

Alexis went into the kitchen and opened the door too hard which led to a crashing noise on the other side. She looked down to see Franco lying on the floor, still holding onto his mop.

"I'm so sorry…did I do that," Alexis said, "Let me help you up."

Franco looked at her and scrambled to pick up something that had fallen out of his pocket. It looked like a little figurine, a woman with dark hair cascading across her vinyl body. Alexis took a closer look.

"What is that…it looks like…"

But he had palmed it and then gave her a broad smile and damn if he didn't show off some dimples when he did so that made Alexis melt. If only she hadn't decided to introduce him to her oldest daughter…no she had to stop chasing younger men and leave it up to the pros like Dianne.

"Are you hurt?"

She helped Franco up and he looked up at her, still smiling.

"I'm lovely hope I didn't cause you any harm."

Alexis batted her eyes a little.

"Oh no…listen I have to get more soup but remember after all this over, you're going to do coffee with my daughter and me."

He nodded.

"Ah yes of course…"

Alice came out just then and he glanced over her way and then left Alexis to return to mopping the floor. So Alice turned her beady eyes on Alexis instead.

"Get back to work…now…I don't want to see your neurotic self here until that soup bowl is dry."

Alexis rolled her eyes and then she saw that Alice had procured Dianne's whip. So she hefted another bowl of steamy soup in her arms and walked back into the kitchen.

* * *

Nikolas hadn't left his coffin, not once since he'd stepped in it that morning. Even while at the Q mansion, he remained inside it lying back as the residents milled around him. Edward looked at him disapprovingly, thinking that he'd found another spoiled spoon fed rich kid who had a worse work ethic than Dillion.

Where was that freeloader anyway, Edward wondered and then remembered something about him taking the yacht out for a spin in the middle of a damn flood. Ned had disappeared somewhere in retreat like he usually did but a warbling sound of someone singing wafted onto the roof of the mansion every once in a while.

"You need to get out of there."

Nikolas didn't move at all but lay perfectly still like a pale doll with jet black hair and still wearing his dark suit.

"The flood waters are rising and soon will inundate the roof, now if you want to die that's your business but if what's left of that crazy family of yours tries to sue mine…you won't get a penny. Tracy's made sure of that."

A voice boomed from the other side of the roof.

"I heard that father and I had nothing to do with the estate being put into bankruptcy. How would I know that no good husband of mine would gamble it away in craps before taking off again?"

Edward sighed, warding off his next heart attack. He just couldn't die until he could find a more appropriate heir to what was left of his kingdom.

"Luke could have put up the Haunted Star instead of ELQ."

Tracy just looked at him plaintively.

"Father why don't I make you something fresh to eat since Alice seems to have disappeared again?"

He looked at her directly jabbing his finger at her.

"I know from the experience of nearly dying a half a dozen times never to take food from anyone in my family unless they taste it first…especially from you."

Tracy's eyes turned steely like a hawk.

"Accidents…all accidents or I was framed by Alan or Monica…or another one of the less stable members of the family."

Edward just turned away from her without turning his back on her because it wasn't safe to do that either.

"How long is this going to go on," he said, "when are they going to dredge the streets and get rid of all this water?"

Dillion wandered on the roof, went by the snack table to pick up a dinner roll then taking a knife to spread butter on it.

"Grandfather they can't do that until they've stopped the flooding," he said, "I think PC's way cooler to get around by boat."

Edward snorted.

"You would, you irresponsible little…"

Tracy put her hand in between them.

"Daddy….Dillion was just leaving after he gets something to eat weren't you my son?"

Dillion nodded, his mouth too crammed with bread to verbalize a response.

"Okay when he leaves we can discuss business," Edward said, "and what your scoundrel of a husband…"

"Soon to be ex husband…once he shows up in town again."

Edward sighed.

"Whatever…I need to find a way to get the company back…now who won it in the poker game?"

Tracy looked uncertain.

"Daddy I don't know…It might have been…."

Suddenly they were both interrupted by the sounds of gagging and coughing, mildly at first and then in a louder crescendo as they watched Dillion fall to the floor writhing as if in agony. Froth burst out of his mouth and his body convulsed.

Tracy and Edward just watched.

"He's your son…and you did tell him not to do drugs did you?"

Tracy rolled her eyes at him.

"Of course I did…but…he doesn't always listen to his mother."

Edward narrowed his eyes looking closer at his grandson.

"Wait a minute….it's not drugs…he's been poisoned….Tracy you tried to get me didn't you…and you wound up poisoning your own son."

She looked indignant.

"I most certainly did not," she said, "It's probably just an emotional fit…he'll get over it."

Dillion's back arched and he grunted, his eyes searching the room wildly…until he saw a ghostly vision of a former love looking at him in deep sadness.

"Georgie…."

Both his mother and grandfather looked at him as if he'd gone crazy.

"Dillion….she's dead," Tracy said, "and that's not entirely a bad thing."

But Dillion didn't hear her, he just kept looking at the spot near the railing and pointed with his finger until his body relaxed as he lost consciousness.

"Noooooo…..," a young woman whose body had turned to bones in some grave cried out but only a whisper of wind was heard among the living.

Except for Niklos who sat up in the coffin for a moment, looked around and then lay down again.


	61. Chapter 61

Kristina looked up at the woman who addressed her.

"Laura?"

The young girl with the rosy cheeks and bouncy honey toned hair smiled at her.

"Yes it's me…I'm hiding from Luke," she said, "He's a no-good trouble maker with bad fashion sense."

Kristina couldn't deny that but she knew a greater truth about Luke who had become the town hero in between being the trouble making low-life and the hard drinking eccentric married to one of the wealthiest women in the state.

"You see everyone thinks that I broke up with him because I wanted to get back together with Scott," Laura continued, "but really he's not the man I want at all."

Now Kristina felt confused, because like everyone else in PC she had been raised on its folklore from the illicit cradle. Hadn't Luke been the only man that Laura had loved even as whispers reverberated during social galas and graffiti marked the bathroom walls about the truth between them?

"Wait a minute, if you didn't want Luke or Scottie, then who…"

Laura's face brightened as her sparkling eyes fell onto the wall of the diner where a poster had been plastered amid the psychedelic pattern and in between two tables hosting what looked like lava lamps.

"This is the man that I want…the one who haunts my dreams."

Kristina's eyes widened as she made out the clean cut young man smiling with the American flag waving in the background which looked an awful lot like…

"Coleman?"

Laura looked confused.

"Who…oh you mean Archibald, junior…yes he's the man I have always wanted…but he joined ROTC, I dropped out of school and bummed around on the road with Luke for a while and…we just went our separate ways."

Laura's face became even more haunted.

"And I don't even know where he was sent or what happened to him," she said, "he could even be dead."

Kristina knew the truth that Coleman wasn't dead at all…far from it. But she hedged on telling Laura that information because she had seen in a movie somewhere that those from the future weren't allowed to tell people in the past about what they had seen lest it rip an irreversible hole in the space-time continuum.

So she settled for a halfhearted lie.

"I'm sure he's doing fine," she said, "probably growing his hair out and shooting some pool."

Laura's eyes furrowed as if she looked confused suddenly.

"Well anyway, he did give me his promise ring…I have it hidden away of course. He's just a bit too square for me now."

Faith sidled up to Kristina, a smile on her face and her skin glowing…in that eerie way.

"Are you ready to go?"

Kristina just looked at her.

"Go…go where?"

Faith's eyes looked mysterious.

"You'll see…"

* * *

Michael picked up the baseball bat again.

Whack.

The tree became his latest punching bag for his unchecked aggression and rage at the parental figures in his life. First of all, his real father, Alan Q junior had gone off and died, after kidnapping him. The man he thought was his father, the one he idolized, the one he had wanted to be minus the elevator shoes had turned out to be just the latest man his mother had shacked up with.

Whack.

That was for the fact that a flood had just washed out most of PC proper and no one had come out and rescued him. He'd been so busy flaying at the tree with his baseball bat, he hadn't realized that the patch of grass he stood on had become an island. Now three days later, he no longer felt the hunger pains so keenly, though his throat still felt parched with thirst as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper.

Still no signs of rescue…because everyone of course had forgotten about him, perhaps even that he had existed at all. He knew that Morgan wouldn't have been dismissed in such fashion, the minute he had turned up missing both Sonny and Carly would have launched a search party for him. But as for Michael…well the anger that raged inside him still gave him renewed energy to return to swinging his bat at what was left of the tree as its leaves twirled down to the ground at his feet from the overhead branches.

Suddenly he heard a power boat whizz through the water in the distance. He looked up and saw the redheaded figure and knew it was Skye…but she wasn't alone. She was all decked out in bling and with her was someone who looked like Uncle Ric…who had disappeared mysteriously in the fog one night down by the waterfront like so many people did slipping into some vortex somewhere.

The boat sliced through the water effortlessly and Michael hoped that they would see him and pick him up to take him to the mainland but instead they stopped the boat suddenly and Michael could see they were arguing. Skye whipped her head back and put her hands on her hips and Ric just slunk down like a beaten up hound dog.

"Haven't I told you not to even look at another girl," she said, "but then again I should have known better after you rolled on the rug with your own stepdaughter."

Ric stammered.

"She…she…she was the one who seduced me….broke my will…"

Skye rolled her eyes.

"Oh Ric…give it a rest."

"I promise I'll make it up to you Skye…"

Her eyes flashed.

"Oh you will…when we return to PC, we're going to stick to the letter on our plan of engagement," she said, "the fact that for some reason, most of the town's under water won't alter anything."

Ric nodded.

"As you wish…and I swear that one time with that Buchanan girl back in Llandview didn't mean anything."

She just looked at him as if part of her wished she could wash her hands of the Lothario but she needed him for her plan of revenge. She had spent months of exile wandering the streets wrestling of how to spend that one life she had to live. What lingered strongest in her mind were the faces of those who had burned her in PC.

Ric of course became the natural partner in crime and once he helped her achieve her goal, she'd dispose of him too.

She prepared to power the boat back up. Ric looked out into the horizon and his eyes narrowed.

"What's that…is it a person?"

Skye looked where he did and decided it didn't really matter. She had her plan laid out and nothing or no one would stand in her way.

"I don't see anyone," she said, "Come on, let's head this boat into shore and get started."

The boat sped past the spit of land where Michael watched it go before resuming his faceoff against the tree.

* * *

Alexis just looked at Max who had lined up to get his fourth bowl of soup that day. The guy was all muscle and after his third trip through the line, he started looking better. She licked her watching him carefully.

Oh wait wasn't it Mac the diligent police commissioner she was supposed to like? But he'd disappeared into the darkened hallways to search for clues that would lead him to the faceless monster who had snuffed out the lives of several women before or after removing their eyeballs. She didn't get that at all, why someone even a remorseless killer would do such a thing.

But looking at Max right now, she could almost understand why Dianne had gone steady with him for as long as she did. As long as a unremorseful cougar like her could go steady anyway. Still as handsome and virile as he looked, was he enough of a bad boy? She thought back to what she remembered about Sonny's somewhat incompetent bodyguard and wait…he did try to strongarm the young boy who sold her happy grass into paying money back. Okay, that did it, he wasn't bad enough yet for her but given some time…

"Alexis…"

She blinked and looked up at Max who had spoken to her.

"I…might I have some more soup please?"

She took his empty bowl and ladled more of Robin's wonder recipe into it. He seemed grateful.

"Thanks…this is very good soup."

Alexis brushed a strand of hair out of her face flirtatiously.

"Yes it is…I'm not sure what's in it but it tastes good."

Max dipped his finger in the bowl as Alexis watched and then tasted the soup from it with his mouth.

"It's very good…back when I was with Dianne, she used to cook for me…she had to because she had me tied up most of the time…"

Alexis blinked her eyes.

"Tied up…you mean on the phone line?"

Max didn't blink.

"No I mean on the bed."

Alexis gasped.

"Oh…I'd heard stories but I thought they were just that…stories."

Max shook his head and then Mac approached, looking wearier than usual, another streak of grey in his hair.

"What's up Max?"

The two men looked at each other warily but Max dipped more soup in his mouth.

"Nothing…just getting more of this delicious soup…"

Mac processed that information.

"Where's your boss?"

Mac shrugged.

"Probably keeping his women apart," Max said, "Carly…Brenda…they don't get along very well."

Mac looked grave as he stroked his chin with his fingers.

"I see…well there's a remorseless killer wandering the halls of the building," he said, "and it would help the investigation if we could account for his whereabouts at all times."

Max licked his spoon.

"Well I'm not his keeper…at least not anymore," he said, "I belong to a new master…"

Mac folded his arms.

"What are you talking about," he said, "It's always been you guarding Sonny…"

Max smiled.

"My new master is not here right now," he said, "but she's on her way…and when she arrives…I must obey or feel the lash of the whip."

Mac furrowed his brow and Alexis just licked her lips again.

"Max…you mean you're into that type of thing?"

He nodded.

"She's on her way here," he said, "and then she'll tell me what to do."

Alexis looked at Mac and he looked lost. She suspected he'd never walked on the wild side during his life. Maybe…no a leopard couldn't change its spots and Mac was too set in his ways. She thought of the photos of her and the mayor safely tucked away in her house which was probably underwater by now.

Lulu rushed in, out of breath.

"Another boat has arrived outside to join us," she said, "and you'll never believe who's out there."

All eyes turned towards the door about to be opened, except one pair which focused on a young teenage girl without a name or purpose except to be next on the killer's list.


	62. Chapter 62

The yacht crested the waves, like it would skim over ice while its passengers stood on deck taking in the devastation around them.

Eddy just gnawed on the leftover pizza while watching Tracy tend to her only son. Dylan had been revived after a few tense moments but still remained strapped to a bed on life support. They had wheeled his cot out on the deck so that the faint streams of afternoon sunlight could caress his face. But right now, he appeared so ashen and his face had taken on a waxy tone that didn't look healthy to Eddy.

"Drugs…damn teenagers these days…"

He shook his head and looked over Tracy who had whipped herself up a martini or two scrounging some olives out of a near empty jar in the frig in the wet bar. When he had announced to what was left of his family that they were taking the yacht out for a sail, not much in the way of enthusiasm had greeted him. Ned had retreated to the sound proof cabin in the bowels of the boat where he could practice his harmonizing without being disturbed and Nikolas had servants move his coffin with him inside of it to the parlor where a large portrait of Lila in her better days loomed large on a wall. Eddy shook his head as he saw the coffin disappear inside the cabin thinking that when things quieted down, he'd have the servants push it over the edge of the yacht into the churning waters that had flooded what used to be a vibrant town.

"Father this is rather boring don't you think?"

Eddy looked up and saw Tracy with martini in hand and her throat dripping with jewelry from Lila's collection approach. A sense of foreboding pulsated through him when he saw the dark blue sapphire circled with winking diamonds on a pendant around her neck. Lila had been wearing the necklace the night that she had wheeled herself out of the house towards the waterfront as fog swirled around her until it had swallowed her up.

Her body had been found the next day when the gardener tripped over her carcass on the way to pick the morning roses for the front mantle. It had been natural causes, the coroner had said, but Eddy knew differently. He had seen her in rigor mortis and the pendant had been glowing…memorizing him drawing himself towards it…mocking him.

Because it had been cursed and he'd been warned about it but hadn't listened…and now a sob tore at his composure and he had to clear his throat to hide it. Now Tracy had decided to wear the deadly necklace and he said nothing. After all, his darling daughter had tried to kill him at least a half dozen times, probably much more often than that but he'd lost count sometime ago.

"Tracy…you can always jump ship and take a swim."

She made a face, the fingers of one hand absently brushing her throat against the necklace.

"I don't think so…no old man you're not going to get rid of me that easily…"

Eddy snorted, never taking his beady eyes off of her because she could be quite treacherous.

"I wouldn't think of it…you're my sole remaining heir through attrition. Everyone has either disgraced the family name or dropped dead."

Tracy shrugged.

"True and they were too weak…all of them."

Eddy had to give her that.

"Yes and someone's been helping fate along…"

Tracy remained silent for a moment looking at Eddy carefully.

"Better be careful old man," she said, "or you might not be long for this world either."

Eddy narrowed his eyes and folded his arms at her.

"Is that a threat?"

Tracy's smile beamed at him.

"Why of course not," she said, "Where is it written that a daughter can't express concern about dear old daddy?"

Suddenly they heard the sound of a gunshot and turned to look out over the water. A brightly colored flare lit up the sky.

"Little too early in the year for fireworks," Eddy muttered.

"Don't be stupid…I think that someone's calling for help."

Eddy looked and saw a small craft bobbing in the waves. It looked like two figures were inside it trying to bail out water. He went up to where one of the servants had found a pair of binoculars somewhere and had them focused on the boat.

"What is it?"

The man looked at him gravely.

"Two people inside a boat about to go down…."

Eddy grabbed the binoculars as Tracy joined them.

"Who is it Daddy?"

He shot her a pithy look.

"It looks like it's Skye…"

Tracy's eyes widened.

"Really…that trollup has the nerve to set foot back in PC?"

Eddy frowned because he'd always been very fond of Skye. The redheaded and spirited young woman had always brought joy to his day and at least she'd never tried to kill him to get her hands on his company. He started to move towards the spare life boats.

"Daddy you can't be serious. Just let them drown."

Eddy shook his head, his heart breaking a little more each time his daughter's homicidal tendencies showed up. The same ones that emerged inside him when he had to fight his impulse to push her off the yacht right now…

"Tracy go to your room," he said, "Clarence…unfasten the boats and get them in the water at once."

Tracy watched scornfully as the servants went to do just that.

"The guy looks kind of cute if a bit seedy….wait a minute that…it can't be…"

Eddy shook his head in disgust.

"It's Sonny's brother Ric…don't bother with him. Let him drown like the rat he is…just save Skye."

"I thought he was dead…"

Eddy sighed.

"That's what everybody hoped…this time but clearly we were all wrong."

Tracy wrinkled her brow. The fine line between life and death in this town sometimes faded. Take her cad of a husband Luke for example, some days he was right by her side serenading her with one of his lurid jokes, the next…he disappeared without a trace in the fog that shrouded the waterfront during certain times of the year.

"What do you think he's doing here?"

Eddy rolled his eyes.

"I don't handle his agenda for him, but you can bet he's up to no good."

Tracy arched one of her brows.

"Just like you father?"

Eddy looked at her quizzically, which irked her.

"Oh come off it Daddy…you know this flood's redesigned the fabric of PC in terms of real estate. I'm sure you've already called your brokers to buy up all the new beachfront property while it's rock bottom."

Eddy just looked at his daughter not denying her accusations.

"I can't talk about business right now," he said, "I'm still eating."

Tracy just shook her head at her father thoroughly irritated not for the first time at the man who had spawned her. But then as she watched the tedious rescue of Princess Skye, she decided to concoct plans of her own.

* * *

Alexis wanted to spank her eldest daughter who was in the corner pawing on Jason who looked a bit pained. She knew that he had chosen a more honorable tack of engaging in self control while so many lives and relationships were in turmoil after being ripped apart by the disastrous flood. Dianne breezed on by her still dressed in her leather outfit that attracted more than a few glances from the throngs crowding the lobby.

"Too bad they can't take it to a padded dungeon but that's down in the basement."

Alexis arched her brows, not knowing that.

"Really…?"

Dianne nodded.

"Max and I used to sneak down there and have some fun playing that he was the dragon and I was the…well never mind."

Alexis brushed her hands looking at her best friend a bit warily.

"I'll take your word for it…I've never been into all those medieval looking torture devices."

Dianne chuckled.

"Oh Alexis we need to broaden your horizons…after you get acquitted of the latest murder charges."

Alexis blinked her eyes.

"Oh yeah…I kind of forgot about that. You don't think a jury can convict me after I've just survived the most harrowing flood and I can't find one of…well maybe two of my children."

Dianne shook her head.

"That's why I don't have kids…I'd probably misplace them the day they were born."

Alexis narrowed her eyes.

"I didn't misplace them," she said, "They just ran off without a care or thought of how it would impact me."

Dianne gave her a funny look.

"Alexis…darling…you do know whether or not they have survived the flood don't you?"

"Of course I do…well I know that both Molly and Sam over there…they survived…I'm just not sure what happened to Kristina…but I'm sure she'll turn up."

Dianne just looked at her.

"Did you even look for her?"

Alexis sighed.

"Of course…well as much as I could before Alice forced me to run the soup line for the last three days or so…It's not like I had any time for anything else."

Dianne gave her a look of reproach and Alexis just rolled her eyes.

"Okay…I did have that naughty interlude with Jerry but I really needed that for a while."

Dianne smiled not willing to disagree with that.

"It's just that you really should I don't know send Mac out to look for Kristina if you can't."

Alexis sighed again throwing up her hands.

"Mac's a whole different problem," she said, "He's been too busy trying to solve these murders to do anything else."

"Well if we have a killer in our midst, it's his job to find him since Sam's too busy with Jason to go out and play PI."

Alexis grumbled.

"She's always too busy with that loser Jason to do anything else but I think I have the solution to that."

Dianne's brow furrowed.

"Like what?"

Alexis mouth beamed widely.

"I just found her the perfect guy…in the middle of all this death and destruction…and it's not a guy I slept with first."

* * *

Sam's lips devoured Jason's to the point where his almost disappeared and her eyes closed as she imagined herself dressed in some white dress with a veil while they got married with the entire town in attendance. She wanted so badly to be Mrs. Jason Morgan and to wear his ring but he hadn't even proposed yet and she had been feeling antsy for a while.

She pulled away from him and he released her coming up for air, his eyes fixed and his face rigid almost as if he had been thinking. But Jason just wasn't that…cerebral. So she brushed off her baggy pants and fidgeted with her mussed hair, just looking at him.

"Jas…when are we going to get married?"

He just looked at her blankly and then his brow furrowed slightly.

"Married?"

"Yes married Jas…I want to be your wife in the worst way…but if you don't want to marry me…"

"Marry you…."

Jason had a way of repeating what other people said as if comprehension came slowly to him.

"Yes, my mother…Alexis told me she's taking me out to meet some guy for coffee…after this disaster is over with…and I've been thinking about it."

"Thinking about it…"

"Well yes Jas and usually I don't go for my mom's taste in men…well except for those three or four times but he sounds kind of cute."

"Cute…"

"Not like you of course…but if our relationship is going nowhere and you won't…put out, I'm going to meet this guy for coffee."

Jason stood there scratching his immobile mop of hair.

"Sam…you don't even like coffee…"

She sighed loudly.

"I don't usually go for artistic types either Jas but I need a man who can take care of me and I need a new wardrobe when this is all over and EBay just rejected your card."

Jason just sighed, not sure what to say. He turned his head slightly so he could glance at the closed double doors in the quarantined area where Liz was saving a life with whatever tools lay in reach. With one final look at Sam who stood there fidgeting with her hair, he left her to walk towards those doors and to what existed behind them.


	63. Chapter 63

Liz felt like at that moment, a nervous breakdown was eminent. She had been working tirelessly on patient after patient for the last few weeks while those holed up at the community center waited for the waters to recede. So far, most of the town remained submerged under dozens of feet of water and no one knew how much of the town even would be habitable once the latest tragedy to befall it became a memory.

She'd used whatever equipment or power tools within reach to save lives and to rebuild torn up bodies and ripped apart flesh. She'd battled an unknown disease which required a quarantine to be called and yellow tape unrolled by the yard to cordon off the triage area she'd set up to do her work.

Not to mention that at least one…maybe two separate serial killers were roaming the darkened and endless hallways of the Brownstone to kill and dismember innocent women who had wandered off by themselves.

So this crisis had just really got to her and she didn't understand how others like Robin who was currently humming a tune while baking bread in the kitchen could keep it all together all the time.

But then again, Robin had one thing Liz didn't have and that was a man. Okay so Patrick had that wandering eye working to slip him in one bed and out the other. She'd seen him woo at least half dozen young women into secluded corners during this crisis and they left happier.

Liz envied Robin anyway. She'd love to have a man paying attention to her even the cheating kind. Lucky had mysteriously disappeared once again to go find himself and Jason, well he'd returned to that lying, cheating skank of a gold digging tramp Sam. Now they were talking about marriage, well Sam had talked about it anyway. Jason didn't really talk all that much even in the best of times.

She saw that the man with the mop had been checking out every skirt inside the house but hadn't yet cast his flirtatious eyes on her nubile body. Because despite giving birth to a half dozen kids by different fathers, she still could rock in a tight skirt, with stiletto heels and a tank top.

"Hey Liz…I need your help…got a bleeder over here."

"Liz can I borrow your hands to sew up this severed hand?"

"I need someone to lobotomize this patient STAT!"

Liz looked around helplessly as the cries for help came from all around her. But how could she figure out who to help first?

"Here you might need this…"

Someone handed her a flask and this someone looked like an elegantly dressed woman wearing a veil to hide her face. Something familiar about her struck at Liz but she couldn't remember what. But hey, if someone in this god forsaken disaster zone was going to put aside their selfish thoughts and think about her for five seconds, she would take what she could get.

She grabbed the flash gratefully, unscrewed the flask and downed the golden, hot liquid down the hatch. Tasted like brandy…only not. But it warmed her body and sent tingles all the way down to her toes. She blinked her eyes and smiled at her good Samaritan.

"Thanks..."

The woman smiled, Liz couldn't exactly see it but she could sense it.

"No problem dear…now this will make you feel better."

Liz did feel better and she even felt she could forget about the fact that she didn't have a man of her own for a while as she returned to her triage area. Back in the business of saving lives for as long as necessary.

* * *

Dianne looked over at the woman with the veil that had just handed that flask to Liz, with distrust. Alexis walked over to join her.

"Who is that woman," Diane asked, "the one over with the veil?"

Alexis just rolled her eyes.

"Who cares, what matters is who's going to relieve me in the soup line?"

"I don't know…did you ask Robin?"

Alexis sighed.

"She's so busy being the town saint to think about the little people. But you know Dianne, there's something very strange about that girl…"

Dianne frowned.

"Strange…I don't think so…the only thing I can't understand is how she sticks with just one man. Patrick's a hunk but come on, they've been together for years."

"Not that long really….besides at least she's got a boyfriend who is in a respectable profession unlike my daughter."

Dianne smiled.

"She's just having a good time with Jason…you have to admit there's a lot to be said about a good hard body and the strong, silent type."

"He's not just silent, he's nearly catatonic."

Dianne raised her brow.

"No Alexis…your nephew Nikolas is catatonic. Jason is just pensive."

Alexis chuckled.

"Whatever…I just wish he'd move along and hook up with some other girl and leave Sam alone…you know she wouldn't be such a tramp if she could just find the right man."

"This coming from someone who did the nasty with the mayor and then claimed to forget about it…"

Alexis' eye widened and her hands gesticulated.

"I did forget…I swear I don't remember one minute of doing anything with that sleazebag so how great could the sex had been?"

Dianne didn't answer that and Alexis knew that she didn't believe her. No one ever believed her even when she told the truth.

"Alexis I'm not going to judge you but I really think Sam is just going through a phase and she'll grow out of craving bad boys…"

Dianne sighed as if rethinking what she said.

"Except of course if her craving stems from an inherited trait…"

Alexis just pointed at her.

"You…you how dare you…I am nothing like my daughter," she said, "of course I'm just assuming she's my daughter because I never did a DNA test."

Dianne just sighed again and wandered off to go find Ethan because he was the only young guy she hadn't bedded yet.

Alexis watched her go and just folded her arms, wondering if she really had any friends in PC or anywhere for that matter. Everyone who claimed or she assumed to be her friends always bailed on her before she could bail on them. How fair was that? Even Luke…where the hell was he anyway? Of course knowing him he would just show up at some point and get everyone into deep trouble.

She decided she couldn't wait for that to happen. She must act quickly by doing nothing.

* * *

Eddy watched as that cad Ric stood watching the flood waters crash against the yacht as it continued onward to shore. Skye had gotten on the satellite phone to see if she could track down any of her relatives out of state to rescue her from this hellhole.

Tracy still wore the doomed necklace, the facets at the diamond winking at Eddy. He knew that he'd be the next target of the dreaded curse. She wore a sour expression on her face and he knew why. She'd always been so jealous of little Skye.

"Father…why I didn't just throw her off the yacht into the ocean on that first trip…"

Eddy threw her a piercing look.

"Oh did I actually say that," Tracy said, fingering the necklace, "What I mean is that it's always best in this family to learn how to swim."

"I know what you meant and as long as you wear that necklace you can't lie to me."

She scoffed at such a ridiculous notion.

"You say such silly things daddy…not that it'll matter when I spike your scotch with this new designer drug and get you on the next padded wagon to Sunnybrook."

Her hand flew up to cover her mouth. Maybe Eddy was right about the necklace but then again…

Ric left the railing and flashed him one of his seedy smiles that he thought served as an aphrodisiac for women.

"What's there to eat…we were out on the seas for days…"

Tracy tossed back a careless hand.

"Oh there are some crusts of pizza left in the galley but that's all you and that guttersnipe will get…and you're going to have to both sleep in one of the lifeboats."

Eddy's brows lifted suddenly.

"Tracy how you can be so cruel and heartless," he said, "I don't care about Ric but Skye's sleeping in one of the cabins."

His daughter scowled but walked away, but no one ever turned their back on a woman like her. He had learned that the hard way and it had taken a couple experiences to hit home.

Ric's shoulders drooped and his smile dimmed somewhat as he headed to the lifeboat. Eddy just shook his head, wondering when this crisis would end and they could all return back home to the mansion.

Then he wondered what the hell had happened to Alice?

* * *

Johnny Wonderful slipped out of the darkness and walked towards where Lulu waited for him. She had accepted his explanation that he had to serve as security to guard the hallways to prevent more young women from meeting their violent ends. She didn't have to know about Brenda.

Neither did Sonny. In fact, it seemed that he'd forgotten all about his latest fiancée and started telling people that Kate was the real love of his life. Not Brenda, not Olivia, not Carly nor anyone else. Only Kate could complete him and he would marry her by the end of the week.

So Brenda had gone missing but fortunately, it had been Johnny who had found her and the two of them had wandered into an office to hole up in their love nest. A shadow had followed them but they were too wrapped up in each other to notice.

"I must go…Sonny might miss me."

Johnny had put his shirt back on over his broad chest.

"No…he was busy with some business…I guess Jason and he are back together again and are making plans."

Brenda smiled.

"I'm glad…Jas was there for me when he wasn't there for Liz, Courtney, Carly or any of those other whores he hangs with."

Johnny smiled back at her.

"All the better for the two of us to spend time together sweet thing."

Brenda's nose wrinkled.

"What Johnny?"

"You know…this could be the start of something big."

Brenda started rummaging through her purse.

"I don't know about that," she said, "I still have plans to marry Sonny…he just gave me some new bling and I got some new threads and…wait…it's got to be around here somewhere."

"What baby?"

Brenda's face turned petulant.

"My nail file that Sonny gave me…the monogrammed one with the diamond studs…it's missing."

Johnny shrugged.

"Maybe you just misplaced it or it got lost in the flood. I'm sure he'll buy you a new one."

She sighed, tossing her hair back.

"I know that but…it was special…where could it be?"

Outside the door, an unseen hand held it tightly in its grip while watching them.


	64. Chapter 64

Kristina thought her life just royally sucked about now.

Her tour guide, the shimmering woman had ditched her and Laura and Amy were acting like they were her new best friends. They seemed harmless enough but they were so…not like the stories she'd read about them on the bathroom walls at PC High.

First of all who could have ever predicted that she'd be all dreamy eyed over Coleman the werewolf of PC…but then again who would ever have thought that his real name would be something like Archibald?

This all had to be one big lie. She had spent hours upon hours hanging out at the swanky spot named Rosie's and had been introduced to the cast that had shared the stage of PC during the mellow eighties.

Laura was supposed to be out having all these amazing adventures with that swag named Luke but instead…was she really sitting in the corner plucking daisy petals over Coleman?

She really needed to just get out of this twisted time warp and head back home but Rosie kept refreshing her soda glass.

So her tour guide had asked her to follow her but she couldn't keep up with someone whose feet barely skimmed the ground. She had lost her when she had disappeared up a staircase and Kristina had hesitated, because who really had any idea where it led?

"Why don't you come skiing with me Annie?"

That had to be the long-haired hippy looking Dr. Jeff Webber, PC's main ladies man at the moment talking to Nurse Annie who had left the convent only two years earlier. However, you can take the woman out of being a nun but it was much harder to take the nun out of the woman.

As Jeff soon found out when she refused to jump into the sack with him…or any man until she had the ring on her finger. Kristina read that Annie had gone insane at some point and after a vacation at Shadybrook, she'd disappeared off the canvas to never be seen or heard from again.

Annie twirled a lock of her hair.

"You know what will happen if I do," she said, "You will try to pressure me to engage in carnal sin."

Jeff just smiled not knowing what else to do.

"We could have separate sides of the bed."

Annie shot him a piercing look.

"Try separate condos…I will not break my pledge just to have sex with you."

Kristina just rolled her eyes. She didn't have too much patience for goody two shoes. She was her mother's daughter after all.

Annie groaned as she looked across the room.

"What is it my little angel?"

"It's that harlot Susie Moore…you know her," she said, "How dare she parade that unholy issue she and Alan Quartamaine created when they engaged in adultery."

Jeff's eyes widened.

"Oh you mean little Jason," he said, "He's such a well behaved child unlike his brother Alan."

Annie pursed her lips.

"Well, that might be because he doesn't have any Webber in him."

Kristina frowned when she heard those words. Wait a minute, hadn't Alan Jr. been sired by Alan Quartermaine? And had the curly haired woman laughing with Rosie toting a little boy in her arms been Susie?

"I know it's all so confusing," a woman's voice said, "I myself have difficulty keeping track of who's related to who and how."

Kristina turned around and her eyes widened as she recognized the woman with the veil.

"You're…"

The woman smiled.

"I'm Auntie Helena…I'm the one who loves and knows you best."

Kristina nodded.

"I know that but my mom won't let me see or even talk about you which I think is so unfair."

Helena shrugged.

"Your mother's a very disturbed and paranoid woman," she said, "You shouldn't listen to her or believe one word she says."

Kristina shrugged.

"I pick and choose what to believe from anyone," she said, "adults aren't to be trusted."

Helena didn't look as if she disapproved.

"You will find there are few people to trust including your family."

Kristina didn't know what to say to that but then Laura and Amy walked up to them.

"Hey what's up," Laura said, "Amy and I are going to shop for some threads to wear to the dance tonight."

Amy nodded.

"The hospital is putting it on for charity, why don't you come?"

Kristina looked at Helena who just wore that eerie smile and then at Laura and Amy.

"I don't have anything to wear…"

Amy shrugged.

"I might have some old dresses in my closet that I don't wear anymore. You can drop by and check them out."

Helena focused her gaze on Laura.

"Are you bringing that scalawag Luke to the dance?"

Laura narrowed her eyes.

"Who are you again…some old lady who's been spying on us…I just think that's so…so creepy."

Helena didn't appear to be all that worried about Laura's criticism.

"You will know who I am soon enough," she said, "Soon everyone in PC will know that."

Laura shrugged.

"Yeah…well whatever…come on let's get out of here," she said, "Suddenly the air's gotten a bit chilly."

Helena chuckled lightly as Kristina gave her one last look before heading off with the other two women.

So Laura didn't know who Helena was yet. A lot confused her about how the folklore and history of PC had just been so rearranged. But she put that thought away as she went to join her friends.

* * *

Brook Lynn pulled at her tethered wrists even though she knew by now it did little good. She'd been tied to this bed for days or weeks and no one had come to rescue her yet. She didn't even know if anyone had noticed that she'd been missing and had come looking for her. Franco, the evil little man hadn't yet returned.

Someone had been providing her with food and water and occasionally let her move up and about the confined space but she couldn't see this person's face because it wore a mask.

"Can anyone hear me…please come and help me?"

But at this point she felt like she was talking to herself. If only she'd listened to Georgie's warnings but then wait a minute, Georgie had been a ghost because she'd ignored someone else's warnings. Still, if only she'd paid more attention when Georgie had appeared during jury selection for Alexis' murder trial which seemed a lifetime ago.

Then another ghostly image appeared in front of her just then, shimmering in the darkness of the makeshift dungeon. Something tugged at Brook Lynn's memory at who she might be. Wait a minute…it couldn't be…no certainly not but…

The glowing figurine came and sat on the corner of the bed. Brook Lynn struggled to get a better look at her.

"Who are you…?"

The figure looked at her with what looked like great disdain.

"You know who I am Brookie… I'm the girl who only wanted some friends and wound up dead at the hands of you and the others."

Brook Lynn's heavily mascara brushed eyes widened.

"No…is that really you Sage? You're supposed to be…"

"Dead…oh I am very much dead but that doesn't mean I can't seek my revenge against those who murdered me."

"But it was an accident."

Sage snorted.

"Was it…no you killed me after you rejected me so callously and now I'm dead," she said, "Well soon you will be dead too."

Brook Lynn felt confused.

"How so…I mean only Georgie died, the rest of us are still alive."

Sage shook her head.

"No…Dillion is in a vegetative state on the Quartermaine yacht and you will soon join him…I would have come after you but I see someone's beat me to it."

Brook Lynn felt an edge of fear inside her.

"Oh Franco…he's nothing but a ruthless bastard tricking me like this but I shall escape…as soon as I figure out how to untie these ropes."

Sage stood up and looked at her with such pity.

"Good luck…but I don't think you'll succeed," she said, "and you'll be another casualty of Franco's need to express his artistic talent. That will make me very happy."

Sage started to shimmer away just then leaving a forlorn Brook Lynn all alone again.

* * *

Alexis grumbled to herself because there was no one around to listen to her complain about how rotten her life had become. Sam had disappeared with Jason once again and Mac buzzed in and out of the kitchen to scarf down some of Robin's homemade bread before returning to his intensive investigation of the latest round of serial killings.

Not that he really did it for her save some flirtatious banter over lattes every six months or so, but she needed a man to tell her that everything would work out, that the flood waters would eventually ebb away and they could all go home.

Unless their homes had washed away of course…but then maybe she could shack up with Dianne at her cougar pad for a while until she figured out what to do next.

Then suddenly she heard a whisper…

She spun her head around to check its source and that's when she saw the shadow next to the pantry.

Her heart sped up and her libido cranked up again. It could only be Jerry or Craig or whomever waiting in the wings for her to meet him.

She looked around her and noticed no one really paying attention so she sidled on over to see him. They slid back into the pantry and their arms slipped around each other as their lips locked intently.

Then the clothes started coming off until…

"Wait Jerry…I need to ask you something."

He stopped unbuttoning her top and looked at her with his magnetic eyes. The ones that could turn a woman's body into mush with a single glance…but not hers…no she was made out of much stronger stuff.

At least she would be when the current crisis had ended but in the meantime, her body screamed for closeness with him. His badness made him all the more desirable, his litany of sins an aphrodisiac to her senses.

"Ask me what my darling?"

Oh she just wanted to swoon when he said that but she had to remain strong now.

"Now don't take this the wrong way but…I need to know if you killed any of those women."

His brows lifted and she didn't think she'd get an answer from him, at least not verbally but then he surprised her.

"No I did not…I have alibis for each and everyone."

She scowled. No doubt, they would be provided by women, sweet young things that had gallivanted around with him.

She folded her arms.

"I bet but at least you'll be innocent if Mac has some questions for you."

Jerry didn't seem all that concerned about the police commissioner.

"He can ask away but he should focus on finding the real killer."

Alexis nodded.

"My thoughts exactly…this killing has got to stop because at some point, they'll think I did it."

Jerry's mouth curved into a smile.

"Did you my darling?"

Alexis looked taken aback.

"Of course not…I would never kill anyone…at least not most of the time."

Jerry just chuckled with mirth at her answer.

"That's my Alexis but if they come looking for you, don't mention me."

Just then Robin walked up to them with another tray of bread. It smelled heavenly.

"Why don't you try some?"

Jerry smiled and of course took a slice while Alexis tried to exercise more self control.

"Try it Alexis…I baked it just for you."

Alexis smiled.

"Why thank you Robin…I guess I'll sample it."

Robin's smile widened and her eyes…for a moment there, they glistened but it had to be the lighting. She couldn't possibly be evil could she, no Alexis shook her head at the sheer lunacy of such a thought. Robin represented goodness and light in a town of depravity and evil and PC needed her to avoid the dark path.

Jerry ate his bread and then his eyes shined with regret.

"I have to take leave now my darling and I don't know when I'll be back."

Alexis sighed.

"Whatever…Robin I think I'll have more of that bread."

Robin's eyes looked calculated.

"Of course…eat as much as you want."

Alexis did just that but then a thought hit her. Something about Robin just looked different and she couldn't explain it. Oh well, she thought, I really don't have time to do that.

It would be a decision that she'd later regret.


	65. Chapter 65

Sami hitched up her pants, rolling her eyes as she wondered where the hell Jason had been for the past hour. He had told her he had to go make sure Sonny and his harem of women were not killing each other but hadn't yet returned.

She scratched her nose, toyed with the tendrils of hair hanging loosely around her face and tried not to think about how she really needed to get herself some decent threads so she would look all classy while they hit the party circuit in the upper crust part of what was left of PC. Surely, the mansions up in the hillsides above the right side of the tracks would survive the flood intact even as most of the homes in the lower glens had washed away.

"Jas why did you just leave me here by myself," she warbled to herself.

Especially with at least one remorseless killer running around loose after innocent young women. Bodies had been discovered strewn in the hallways of their rescue shelter, their eyes gouged out and Mac, the commissioner just always seemed a big step or two or a mile behind the killer. If only Jason would return, the two of them could get on the case, they could search for clues and survey the premises. Maybe she could even go undercover and they could draw out the killer that way using her as bait. But Jason had been more concerned about Sonny's messy life than playing detective.

He hadn't been interested in her the past hour or so either. She had tried every tool in her arsenal and then some to lure him into any empty pantry or darkened corner for a passionate interlude. But he just didn't seem interested anymore, he just kept pushing her away from him and saying they didn't have time to play.

So she'd slipped her hand into his coat pocket hoping to be caressing plastic only to find that all his pockets were empty. So there'd be no going online to order some new clothes and accessories so she could shine in this hovel.

"Hey what are you doing in there?"

Sam looked up and saw Michael glancing at her, a perplexed look pinched on his face.

"I'm…I'm…"

She tucked another strand of hair behind her ear.

"I'm just waiting for Jas…you know…but he's taken off again and I don't know when he'll return."

Michael processed that and she saw his fists clench as if he wanted to punch something.

"I….I…I just get so angry at him…."

Sam felt perplexed…sure Michael hated the whole world but what irked him now?

"What is it…is it your mother…your father?"

Michael just shook his head quickly, not saying anything.

"Jas…?"

His head shook again and that surprised her because there had been some tension between them only two days ago or maybe it was two weeks. Time seemed to have lost all meaning inside this building since the flood had washed out the town.

"It's….Mac…I know he thinks I'm still a kid but I know I can help him find the killer."

Sam furrowed her brow and toyed with a strand of hair again.

"Michael…Mac is a trained professional…um…um…he's a trained um…something."

Michael almost looked as if he were going to explode.

"I think he's a fool…he's totally off track with this killer and I know it and I wanted to say it and no one would believe me!"

The rage almost threatened to consume him at that point. His fingers itched to wrap around something so he could smash the building down to bits.

"Now look Michael…I know you're upset but you've got to chill out dude."

He snarled back at her.

"I can't…I won't…not until Mac believes me. That I can find the killer…"

Sam twirled her hair.

"Do you know who it is?"

Michael paused for a long moment, his face contorting.

"Well….no but I've got it down to about 10 people."

Sam just sighed. She thought at this point everyone had it down to about that many folks but only one of them could be the stone cold serial killer.

"Michael…you know I'm your friend…your best friend but…"

Michael watched her carefully.

"You don't love me, you don't want me, you want Stone him."

Now she felt confused.

"Who…?"

Michael made a face.

"Mr. Lobotomy."

She fussed with her hair some more.

"Well yeah you mean Jas…sure…we're engaged or we would be if he'd only ask."

Michael gesticulated with his hands.

"I could give you so much more than he can Sami," he said, "if you just give me the chance…I'll prove it by finding the killer."

Sam grimaced. Yeah Michael was kind of cute but she had promised herself to Jason, to be his true love forever or at least until he ran out of money.

"Michael…I think you need to go into the kitchen and get some of that soothing herbal tea that Robin made and just drop out a little while."

Suddenly, the door opened and Liz ran in, still wearing her soiled surgical scrubs.

"I need a type AB- blood type STAT or some blonde chick who's been standing around in the background for weeks is going to die of some exotic poison of unknown origin."

Michael and Sam just looked at each other, before grabbing hold of one another tightly and surrendering into a passionate kiss.

* * *

Alexis watched as they carted away some dead blonde twit who hadn't even said anything for the past month off into the makeshift morgue.

Liz pushed back her surgical mask and looked at Alexis.

"I need absolute discretion in this matter," she said, "lest we start a panic."

Alexis' eyes widened.

"What do you mean…you mean the soup didn't kill her?"

Liz shook her head solemnly and Alexis felt her entire body relax.

"Oh what a relief…I don't need this added to my murder rap sheet…I mean I've never killed anyone not ever…cross my heart…"

Liz cut her off.

"No Alexis, she died of something we haven't seen yet…something almost alien to this town…something very evil and dangerous."

Alexis folded her arms.

"What could be so bad…I mean besides the indignities I've suffered since I've been here…well even before during that farce of a murder trial."

Liz sighed.

"This could be the work of a truly diabolical person….but who could it be?"

Alexis paused and then the light bulb went off in her head. Her eyes skirted the room.

"Helena…oh god, she better not be lurking around here somewhere in one of her ridiculous disguises."

Liz looked consumed.

"Helena…you don't mean…she just donated a jewelry collection so we could sell it on the black market to buy medicines for the sick and injured."

Alexis' jaw just dropped.

"You can't be serious. The woman is a deranged killer…she's up to no good…"

Liz shrugged and returned to her patients and Alexis watched her go…thinking of what a fool she must be…a nice and compassionate fool but one nonetheless. But if what Liz said were true, then Helena must be in the building concocting some nefarious and awfully convoluted plot somewhere.

But who else could be so evil?

* * *

Lulu brushed her hair the 100 strokes just as her mother had done…at least before the catatonia hit her. Johnny had just told her again how much he liked it hanging in loose curls around her face but that's before he disappeared with that Olivia chick again. Why was he spending so much time with her anyway, when he wasn't dropping off some of Robin's freshly baked cookies to Liz?

"He's off with some woman you know…"

Lulu turned around at the familiar voice and saw her. Georgia, luminescent and translucent at the same time, dressed in a brilliant gown with her face all aglow. The vision of goodness and light as she'd been in real life.

"What are you doing here?"

Georgia shrugged.

"I'm dead…I can be anywhere and I got sick of following around my hippy of a mom."

Lulu looked serious.

"At least you have a mom," she said, "Mine's a vegetable or whatever you call it. She only wakes up when Daddy gives her some special meds."

"Daddy is like Peter Pan, he'll never grow up," Georgia said, "He never came to my funeral or even my grave."

"Maybe he's lost somewhere."

Georgia shook her head vehemently.

"No…he's not lost…he's bad and he's going to burn in Hell with the rest."

Lulu looked at the formerly live woman in shock. What was Georgia thinking to use such harsh terms about her parents? Wait…Georgia was nothing but a wisp of a ghost so did it matter?

"You are going to die too," Georgia said, "someone you trust will do it when your back is turned."

Lulu recoiled at those words. Someone wanted to kill her? If so, who and how would she stop it?

"Why?"

Georgia looked away a moment.

"Because you will find something and they'll find you."

With that, she faded away again and Lulu couldn't see her anymore but she trembled. What if what Georgia said about her came to pass? She didn't want to die but if she did, she wanted to be buried in her best poodle skirt and blouse, her flossy hair tied in a smart bow. And a picture of Johnny Wonderful right next to her.

Someone watching her almost felt her thoughts and nodded, thinking that she might be next on the list before a gentle whisper reminded this empty soul that Lulu had been included on another killer's list.


	66. Chapter 66

Michael just looked at the wanton woman who had just kissed him so passionately. He didn't quite believe it. Back in the days when he'd been nicknamed "Carrot Top" he just didn't seem to get it on very well with the girls. Classes in anger management skills just hadn't done much to make him any more appealing to the women who taunted him with their big hair styles, their larger breasts and toned legs.

The Fates had completely robbed him of his rightful claim to the teenaged ritual of spending at least one summer on the run with a gorgeous girl and some kind of convoluted adventure planned. Of course, when Luke and Laura had founded this bold tradition, every attempt to duplicate their legendary journey had paled greatly in comparison. But it didn't matter to the younger generation who were mostly in it for the free sex in alluring surroundings set to stirring music soundtracks.

"Sam what did you just do?"

The waifish woman with the baggy pants just reached into her bra to pick out a pack of gum, pulled out a stick and stuck it in her mouth to chew a wad.

"I just kissed you silly…gosh sometimes I can believe you're Alan's junior's kid."

His face snarled up in suppressed rage.

"Don't say that…that skinny assed wimp is not my father," he said, "Sonny's my father….he and Carly got together but just don't remember…kind of like what happened with your parents."

Sam waved her hand.

"Oh that…my mother just acts like she has no memory of having sex with my father whoever he is," she said, "but she's clearly lying."

"Yeah well, you see it could happen that way," Michael said, "Sonny could he and is my real father…not that wannabe spoiled rich kid."

Sam shrugged.

"Whatever…look did you like what I just did…cause you're kind of cute and Jas took off and just left me again."

"It was kind of cool…you're a hot chick…you would be if someone bought you some better threads."

Sam sighed, biting her lip.

"Yeah I know but I got to get my hands on some more plastic," she said, "I think Jas is maxed out…I tried his new card on Amazon but it got rejected."

Michael brooded about that and his fists clenched.

"If I could get a bigger allowance, I could get you some real classy outfits."

Hope lit up her face.

"Oh Michael…do you think you could? I mean I was willing to stick with Jas cause he's like my soul mate but man, he's just doesn't want to make a girl happy…and he's out of plastic."

Lulu rushed in just then to interrupt their interlude. Sam just glanced at her.

"What's up?"

Lulu just sighed.

"I've been looking for Brook Lynn all over the place and I just can't find her."

Sam scratched her hair.

"When's the last time you saw her?"

Lulu thought hard about it.

"I don't know…three days ago…maybe four…a week maybe…"

Sam nodded.

"Well you might want to report it to Commissioner Mac because Jas is busy helping Sonny and Michael and I are busy here."

Lulu eyed her critically.

"Doing what exactly?"

Sam tucked a loose strand of unkempt hair behind her ear.

"I don't know exactly…but we're…busy…solving an important case."

Lulu sighed.

"I know I've been looking for Johnny Wonderful…but he keeps taking off on some important business and I feel so guilty for even questioning his commitment and heroism during this crisis….but have you seen him?"

Sam looked at Michael then back at Lulu.

"I…well…."

Michael blurted out.

"I saw him screwing some older chick…not the one with the whip but the other one."

Lulu looked puzzled.

"You don't mean Alexis…she's never left the soup line."

Michael shook his head urgently, his fingernails tearing into his palm from squeezing his fists so hard.

"No…the other one the one with the son who looks old enough to be her brother…but they were busy in the pantry a while ago."

If Lulu looked devastated at the news, she didn't show it though her eyes blinked with unshed tears…then she smiled, her lips wavering.

"Oh I know…he's just comforting this woman during this flood emergency…how sweet of him to think of others and not himself…"

Sam and Michael looked at each other again, each wishing that the bubblehead in the wilting poodle skirt would just leave them alone. Lulu just had to be adopted, she could never be Luke's daughter, not in a million years. Yeah, she could be Laura's kid because they both had that wide-eyed spacey look in common. Maybe someplace somewhere two babies got switched…after all, it had happened many a time at GH when real life distracted hospital personnel from their meticulous work.

Then the guy with the mop, the peculiar looking one with a mop of curly hair and a strange smile on his mouth, he just walked right up to them.

"What do you want," Sam asked.

He smiled more broadly.

"I couldn't help but overhear you while I was mopping the floors."

Sam threw him a skeptical look.

"You've been mopping the floors here for weeks…not that I've noticed."

He nodded.

"Of course not…I'm but background scenery in the canvas of chaos married with control that's unfolding."

"Whatever…I've got to go find Jas…when all this is over, I need at least one new dress to wear."

The man's eyes lit up suddenly.

"Ah…I believe I can help you with that," he said, "I have plenty of plastic if you need to…"

But Sam had hungrily started grabbing at his shirt which exposed over a dozen colorful and in some cases sparkly credit cards attached inside the garment.

"Which one would you like?"

She just gazed at them, her eyes fixed on them in front of her, her hands suddenly indecisive.

"I….I can't decide right now," she said, "They're all so beautiful and you're so nice to share…"

He nodded, pulling his shirt closed suddenly.

"I know my darling…but if you want one you'll just have to follow me."

Lulu just looked at a transfixed Sam desperately.

"Sam…stop you know you're not supposed to accept gifts from people you don't know."

Sam just shrugged and then followed the man with the mop anyway. What she needed now was some new threads and if this man would gift her with some, she would so be down with that.

Besides he looked kind of cute and exactly the kind of edgy, moody artistic guy that would drive her mother crazy. So much more the appeal of the kind stranger, she decided as she moved quickly to keep up with him as he left a trail of shiny plastic on the ground for her to follow.

* * *

Alexis just looked at Diane as if she were possessed.

"What the hell are you saying," she said, "You're saying that you were just in the pantry lip locked with my man?"

Diane chuckled, slipping her handcuffs back in her purse.

"Look you and Mac….you were never going to get it on together…no, you just try to outtalk each other every six months or so over coffee…Well, I'll have him and be done with him by your next round of verbal foreplay."

Alexis just sighed loudly.

"Oh come off it, you just want him because I wanted him," she said, "You're no better than my skanky daughter and you're supposed to be my best friend."

Dianne looked at her manicured nails.

"Look…Alexis I only kissed him…twice and well, we were interrupted when one of his techs came in to dust for prints…"

"Your prints…good then he'll run them and find out you're wanted in five states."

Dianne shook her head.

"No…he's still searching for the psycho who killed those innocent girls and dug their eyes out…you can't have a crazy like that running around loose even in a flood."

Alexis smiled.

"Maybe you'll be next on the killer's list."

Dianne's eyes widened.

"Is that a prophecy, wishful thinking….or are you trying to tell me something Alexis?"

"Yes that you're a traitorous bitch who pretended to be my friend to snatch my man."

Dianne raised her hands.

"What do you mean…your man…I stayed away from Jerry…kept my distance from Ric and Sonny…don't even want the mayor."

"Neither did I…still don't remember doing him…must have been my evil twin."

Dianne sighed.

"Unless you're the evil twin Alexis…we haven't met the nicer twin yet have we?"

Alexis started pacing.

"Well I just can't believe that you couldn't keep your hands off Mac," she said, "He's not like the other guys you hook up with…he's not into the kinky stuff."

Dianne just laughed.

"How do you know that? It's not like you've gotten past banter with him."

Alexis sputtered.

"Yeah…yeah but he's not into whips and chains…"

Dianne took her whip out and stroked it fondly.

"All men are into those toys…they just don't know it at first."

Alexis rolled her eyes and walked away from Dianne to go back into the kitchen where Robin was wiping the table in between batches of freshly baked bread.

"She's just being ridiculous…Mac's totally vanilla," Alexis said, "and I…we'll get together one of these days."

Robin just looked at her quizzically and Alexis just cleared her throat.

"I mean that both he and I are totally into drinking vanilla sodas at the diner after work."

Robin nodded and then returned to baking. She'd been tirelessly at the oven since the disaster first started, keeping all the evacuees well fed. Well except for the ones who were murdered instead but Robin didn't mind, she would just continue preparing delicious food for everyone to line up and eat.

Alexis just shook her head.

"Maybe after this is all over, we'll go out on another date," she said, "We'll get dressed up and go some place nice…though it'll have to wait until that ridiculous murder trial is over."

Robin patted her on the arm and smiled.

"You'll be cleared of all charges soon enough."

Alexis sighed.

"I hope so…I would think that they'd be more concerned about the amoral psychopath who's been running amok and killing these women."

"Yes indeed," Robin said, getting out her carving knife, "A killer lurks and so far the identity has not been revealed."

"Well I think it's some guy who's probably a beast and was rejected by some woman and is now out for revenge by killing more women."

Robin shrugged.

"Could be…but I don't agree…I think the killer commits these crimes for much darker, more ancient reasons…reasons that might have haunted us from the past…."

Alexis just shook her head at the young woman and thought how ridiculous her theory surrounded. But then she remembered….


	67. Chapter 67

Alexis just looked around and wished to god or anyone else listening that this siege would just end. The one that chipped away at her will to show off her more heroic side, forcing her cutthroat persona to the curb. She couldn't afford to show off that part of her, not while she had been charged and was awaiting trial for murder. In fact if memory served her correctly, her trial had already gotten started, her lawyer had been the long-lost twin separated from her at birth and Eddy Q of all people was on her jury.

Not just any member, but actually the foreman, which of course meant she was doomed to be dragged to the guillotine after the farce of a trial had ended. It wouldn't surprise her at all if the judge, jury and executioner all broke out into singing and dancing while the bailiff led her away in chains. After all, a lot of stranger events had unfolded in PC lately. She looked down at the blissfully empty soup bowl in front of her, the first time it had been so in weeks and thought, she really needed to start looking for her children.

Including her trampy eldest who had shared her taste in men and the ingrate in the middle who had completely vanished from the canvas without leaving a voice mail on the smart phone that Alexis had given to all her known children at Christmas…well actually Mac had charged them on his Visa because she had maxed hers out on well, the last time she'd been charged with murder. The details on that case remained fuzzy as well, something to do with a motor vehicle, a winding road and some ditzy girl who had wandered straight into the path of her car. Like most of the others, she'd been innocent of course.

Her face brightened as that led her to thoughts of her youngest daughter, the sweet angel known as Molly. She hadn't thought about her in days either because she'd been so wrapped up in her own crises. After all, if she didn't think of herself, who would? Mac was too busy investigating the brutal string of murders that a flood hadn't interrupted, Jerry was off in the shadows somewhere probably seducing virgins and everyone else was just too self-centered.

"Hey Alexis…"

The lawyer's heart sank when she heard the familiar voice.

"Robin…more soup…?"

The doctor turned baker extraordinaire poured creamier, aromatic soup in the huge bowl and Alexis sighed, resigned to being stuck ladling out the nourishing meal for the rest of her natural born life. And that's what would be happened if these flood waters trapping them in this building never receded. They had taken on a more fetid odor in more recent days as if the bodies trapped beneath the surface began to rot. That didn't bother her except for the nasty smell because most of PC's residents weren't really needed anyway. In fact, most of them sat at restaurants talking silently or strolled back and forth down streets serving as background for those residents who actually had important lives.

"Yes and this is the most tasty yet," Robin said, "I found some ancient spices hidden in a secret chamber inside the hidden room behind the false wall of the pantry…right next to this mysterious room with ancient carvings etched in this peculiar red paint on the walls."

Alexis' eyes narrowed, thinking that she'd read something about a room just like that in the latest holiday newsletter circulated by one of the Cassadine family branches. It might have something to do with Victor. After all, it's not like anyone had heard from him in over 20 years since the whole plot involving her father's attempts to freeze PC in order to gain world dominance.

What a joke. As if putting PC permanently on ice would impact the world's huge economic, financial and political arenas in any way. Although the president had mentioned the plight experienced by their town in his State of the Union speech that year, he hadn't given a thought to the town since.

"When are we going to get out of here," Alexis asked, "Do you know Robin?"

Robin appeared to think about it a long moment and then she examined her decoder ring, the one that glowed like a rainbow now and shook her head.

"Even my friend Casey doesn't know…could be hours…could be months."

Alexis rolled her eyes at the assessment coming from Robin's imaginary friend.

"That's just great…I haven't even showered in a month or longer."

Robin shrugged and smiled.

"We're all in this together," she said, "it's really reunited us as a town, made us a lot closer."

Alexis wondered what world Robin lived in because the homicide rate in PC had tripled since they'd been holed up here. Love triangles exploded into shootouts, Sonny and Jason had two gun battles with the vestiges of the syndicate operated by Frank Smith.

She'd never heard of him, had to be some kind of fake name.

Not to mention the serial killings by the faceless and obviously remorseless killer who hid most of the time among them. That thought alone made her shiver. Well not by itself, because the idea that Jerry might sweep her off her feet and push her against the nearest hard surface in some hidden alcove made her body swoon.

In what were dangerous times, Alexis could embrace a little of that on her own terms.

Robin looked up and pointed across the room where Alexis saw that Sam was chatting with the man who'd been mopping the floors for weeks.

"They look so happy together," she said, "Who's that man? I know he's not just someone who mops my kitchen in the background."

Alexis smiled.

"That's my daughter's prince," she said, "He's a very talented, very nice man who is a freelance artist and has a very sexy name."

"What is it?"

"Oh it's Franco something but that's not important," Alexis said, "I just want my daughter to finally hook up with someone who hasn't done the nasty with me or is some deadbeat."

Robin frowned.

"I thought she was with my best buddy Jas."

Alexis smiled more broadly.

"So did he but the jokes on that lobotomized thug because my daughter's finally moving on up."

* * *

Sam tucked a tendril of hair behind her air, partly because it itched but also to flirt with the handsome and charming man in front of her.

"I'm a little shy you know," she said, "and you just look like a man of the world."

Franco smiled putting aside his mop.

"Yes indeed I am," he said, "I'm a very well known artist whose work is known throughout the world."

Sam looked impressed but it wasn't his art she was interested in, more like his credit line.

"So about the plastic, where is it?"

He smiled again, his eyes crinkling. The mop of disheveled curls on his head making him boyish in appearance…and her knees began to weaken.

"Here…I'll show you."

He led her to another one of those small cramped rooms that just popped up inside the Brownstone when needed. He went to a cluttered desk next to an even more cluttered filing cabinet and whipped out a piece of what looked like ancient canvass or it had been treated to appear as such. Sam wouldn't know, she wasn't an expert on much except mooching off of others.

Her eyes widened at what he showed her.

"Ohhhh it's sooooo pretty…."

And indeed to Sam, it was the most beautiful work of art like ever because there were plastic credit cards of every brand and stripe pasted to the canvas in a way that resembled an intricate pattern.

"This was during my consumerism period," Franco said, "It didn't last long but I produced some of my most profound work during it."

She traced the edges of the credit cards on the canvas.

"This is just so beautiful, so…."

Franco smiled showing his teeth.

"It's interactive art…here I'll show you."

He plucked with his fingers one of the cards, a Visa that shimmered like a rainbow and handed it to her. Her fingers shook as she wrapped them around it.

"For me…?"

"Yes my sugar plum," he said, "and there's more where they came from…all for you."

She looked at him, her smile dimming for a moment. There just had to be a catch in here somewhere…but she couldn't think beyond what she held in her hand. She brought it up to her nose to smell it, to rub it against her cheek.

"You like it I see…go try it out…"

She looked at him and then scampered out of the room, hitching her pants to keep them up while he smiled at her departure then returned to mopping.

* * *

Olivia swept the area behind the bar after Johnny Wonderful had left her. They had spent the past 10 minutes on the bar going at it, the tension of the past month under siege slipping away from them. But then afterward, he'd smiled at her in that way of his and zipped up his pants slipping away again.

Returning to that ridiculous girl-child in the tired poodle skirt…Olivia had heard of strange fetishes but that took the cake. In all likelihood, Lulu would wind up as crazy as her mother who remained locked up at Sunnybrook Mental Institution. Then in came Sonny and he started in on her about Carly.

"You know Olivia…back in the days when we hung out at the soda shop, life just seemed simpler."

She sighed at the man wearing the same suit and boots with built in heels to add several inches to his height.

"Sonny, you were screwing fewer women back then," she said, "In fact, you'd given me this cute little plastic ring out of the gum machine to go steady."

He smiled.

"Those were the days…I think we were about 12 then and my mother had just gone crazy after my deadbeat dad took off again on another drinking, whoring binge."

Olivia could hear the pain of the little boy inside the man who reminded her of a petulant child in other ways as well.

"Carly's going to kill you one of these days, stab you with an ice pick or something and you won't see it coming."

Sonny refused to see the future the way she did. If anyone killed him with something sharp it would be Brenda with one of her manicured talons, which he had paid for of course.

"Olivia, she's the mother of one of my children…at least I think but I owe her that because of that time I kind of shot her in the head when she was giving birth."

His childhood girlfriend sighed.

"Oh Sonny, you attract death and destruction wherever you go but you've attracted some Bridezellas in your day."

Sonny remembered the five minutes he'd been engaged to Claudia who had turned out to be the harpy that others called her. Who had snuffed her out finally, right now he couldn't remember? Had it been a car bomb while he watched…yes…oh wait no, that had been some chick named Lily.

Lily…Lily who? Damn he had a hard time keeping his wives straight. The mistresses he remembered but the wives….maybe he could check the running list that Max kept.

"Olivia, you're the only woman who ever got me," he said, "Maybe this time…"

She folded her arms and frowned at him.

"Sonny…darling…I thought you were so sure right now that was Kate," she said, "I'm just one of the women who gave you a child."

He nodded as if he understood that much.

"Oh yeah…Kate…I'm not even sure where she went."

Olivia just rolled her eyes at him.

"Sonny you need to straighten out your life," she said, "You need to do that for your children if not your wives and girlfriends."

He seemed to think about it and then he kind of stumbled out of her sight. A lot having changed since those carefree times that seemed like forever ago when they'd been in the throes of young love in another place and time.


	68. Chapter 68

Kristina opened her eyes and found herself lying on a hard couch inside what looked like an office. Her vision cleared and she saw a woman who looked slightly familiar. She didn't know if she'd ever met her but she must have seen her picture somewhere. Probably she had seen it at the PC museum in the hallway of heroes and villains.

Which one this dark haired woman with the glasses would turn out to be, she didn't know. She still didn't know what she was doing in PC, the retro years. Back when the town had been sleepy but steeped in an exciting history that somehow didn't mesh with what she'd been taught at school.

"I see you were born here."

She looked up at the woman again who sat at an orderly kept desk jotting notes. A photo of a man dressed as a groom on his wedding day stood in a frame on her desk, yet something seemed…oh half of it had been ripped away as if erased by hand. Kristina guessed that to be the bride.

"Where am I…who are you?"

The woman smiled at her.

"Why I'm Dr. Baldwin, Gail Baldwin of course and you are my patient."

No, that didn't sound right to Kristina. She'd been in that hangout, Rosie's Diner not too long ago but what happened next. How had she wound up here?

"I don't know you and I don't know how I got here."

Gail shrugged.

"It doesn't matter how but you got here just in time."

"Time for what…."

"For your session of course…"

Kristina blinked her eyes. Had this been like how Alice felt like when she'd fallen down a deep hole into Wonderland? Only she couldn't remember having run into any white rabbits. But if reality was here instead, history clearly had been revised before her own time because none of what she saw or heard here made sense. Maybe Gail could shed some light sitting there in her white doctor's coat and jotting notes into a pad of paper.

"I've been a psychiatrist since I moved here," Gail said, "My husband Lee, he's the town's only attorney, he thinks I bring too much of it home but Scottie…"

"Scottie?"

Gail brightened then, her mouth curving into a smile.

"Yes my son, my pride and joy really," she said, "He had the best traits of both Lee and me. Being the best, the brightest, the best looking young man in town with the whole world in front of him until…"

Gail's face darkened suddenly and Kristina felt a chill inside the room.

"Until what…"

She though the whole thing was nuts. Shouldn't Gail be asking her the questions instead of vice versa? Maybe she was the one who needed to be lying on the couch.

"He hooked up with that opportunistic hussy…that looked so innocent at first, so pure but she's nothing but Lolita in nun's clothing."

"Lolita?"

Gail sighed.

"Yes that was little Laura all right," she said, "Not entirely right in the head what with her sordid history with older men including her step father…"

Kristina had vague recollection of reading about that chapter of PC's history but not on display inside the museum. Probably the bathroom wall at PC High next to some tale about Lila Q and how she had once ran a brothel in the pool house at the mansion.

"I thought she was like the town's heroine…the way the story's been told."

Gail snarled at her.

"Lies…all lies…she's a homicidal little troll up who charmed her way into my dear son's good graces and then his bed. Acting like she was a breathlessly modest little virgin that he had to woo into his arms. If that were the truth…"

Kristina felt confusion hit her.

"But…but…"

Gail shook her head vehemently.

"Oh and then after marrying my good son, she came in crying with her dress a bit ragged claiming that Luke the disco owner had raped her….oh cry me a river. She screwed around with him on the dance floor with some tacky disco ball flashing above their entangled bodies and some even tackier music playing. They were grunting at it like swine."

"But…"

"No buts about it…she lied about what Luke had done. Now Luke's no better than a common hood who practices poor hygiene but he's out of the gutter so what can you really expect?"

Kristina saw some earlier photos of Luke at the museum and couldn't really disagree with Gail's scornful comments about how he looked but didn't he turn out in some twisted way to be if not the world's savior then that in PC?

"And then Scottie finds out and goes to beat the crap out of Luke at his arranged wedding with some gangster's moll and then Luke and Laura just take off."

Kristina nodded.

"Oh yeah, they went on the run didn't they?"

Gail smirked.

"Oh yes, probably fornicating any chance they could get," she said, "Filthy animals would have more decorum than those two. Then guess what? A few months later she comes back crying that he kidnapped her against her will."

Kristina heard that part too but that part couldn't be true because the story went that they quarreled like river front rats for a while before reuniting to run off to some cheesy island with some cheesier sidekicks to save the world from some crazy dude.

Who happened to be her crazy megalomaniacal grandfather but then maybe he'd just been horribly misunderstood.

"I guess I don't know the whole story."

An understatement, Kristina thought but what else could she say? Gail just looked at her as if suddenly she felt deep pity for her.

"Oh you poor dear…I'm sure you've been lied to since the day you were born."

Kristina saw tears glistening in the older woman's eyes and thought to herself.

No doubt about that.

* * *

Alexis beamed at Dianne.

"Don't they look perfect together?"

Both women were watching Sam going at it with Franco across the room. He had her pinned against the wall, surrounded by plastic credit cards with some of the glittery ones glued to her body.

Alexis frowned. Hadn't her daughter had clothes on a while ago? Still with Sam, with her risqué taste in clothing, she'd look more chaste naked. But she looked blissfully happy with this Renaissance man if a bit spacey.

"I don't know Alexis," Dianne said, "He looks a bit scary. I mean when I was with him…"

Alexis eyes narrowed suddenly and she pointed a finger at her friend.

"Wait a minute…are you saying that this young man with such artistic talent and emotional stability was your bed partner?"

Dianne shrugged.

"Not quiet…I extricated myself from the situation after he wanted to turn our tangle in the sheets into some kind of art project. That's just too kinky even for me."

Alexis' thought about that, knowing just how kinky Dianne could be even before she got a little tequila into her. After all, right now her last lover Max had sent off a message in a bottle to several publishing companies offering up a "tell all" book on his affair with her. Alexis admired him for that, for realizing that his job as Sonny's gofer wasn't going to see him into retirement.

She went back to watching Sam attempt a bump and grind with Franco even though she was attached to the wall like a fly on fly paper. Wait, she needed a better analogy than that and tried to think of one.

"Besides, doesn't it strike you funny that as soon as he shows up, women, sweet young things, show up with gouged out eyes?"

Alexis shrugged.

"So…what does that have to do with anything?"

Dianne folded her arms.

"What if he's the killer?"

Alexis just chuckled madly gesticulating her arms.

"Dianne how crazy is that…that's like saying I'm the killer because I'm here too."

Her friend's expression turned serious for a moment.

"Hey stop that Di…you know I had nothing to do with these killings don't you?"

Dianne couldn't commit herself to any answer so she just slipped an arm around Alexis' shoulder.

"Why don't we give the new couple their privacy and go hunt down some of the tequila. We've been stuck here for weeks now and it's time to loosen up a bit."

Alexis knew by her tone of voice that once again, Dianne, the cougar queen was on the hunt and no strapping young men inside these four walls were safe.

But her mouth felt dry, her muscles sore and since her daughters had all abandoned her, it was time to spend some time pampering herself.

* * *

Lulu just looked up at Michael who looked more enraged than usual. He slammed his fist into a wall and it nearly got stuck. While he tried to wrestle it out, she thought about what he had said. That the woman he loved had just ran off to shack up with some artist leading a trail of credit cards.

The love of his life that fate, tragedy and kismet had brought to him for a brief moment had left him a moment later.

"What is it Lulu? I can feel your accusatory glare on my face."

She sensed more than a trace of hostility in his voice so she just licked her lips and decided to try another approach. She began to shimmy in front of him, her poodle skirt riding up her thighs slightly as she twirled and when she kicked up her legs, her leopard spotted panties appeared briefly.

Surely that would captivate Michael long enough out of his brooding mood to do what Johnny Wonderful had failed to do in the past 15 minutes which was pay attention to her. She curled her index finger for him to follow her into the nearest open doorway and he felt his feet moving under their own volition.

Since he had a thing for the older girls, he would have no problem feigning interest in a girl who he had often admired from afar. She winked at him as she flung her pony tailed head back and they walked into the darkened storage closet.

There she attacked him quickly, tangling her body with his as he shoved her against a wall and their lips met in a cosmic collision of need.

"Sam….."

"Johnny Wonderful…"

Their bodies writhed against the wall as not far away a pair of unseen eyes watched before creeping quietly away.


	69. Chapter 69

Edward stood on his yacht as they finally reached shore to where he hoped there would be food and shelter waiting. They had eaten up every crumb of the pizza and the last drop of wine from the cellar in the bowls of the ship. Actually, that lowlife Ric had drained them of most of their supplies while mooching off of the hard work of others.

Well at least the hard work that Ed had put into keeping his family afloat, literally now as they had left the mansion to escape the rising floodwaters. Ed had grabbed a photo of his beloved Lila, one that he never showed anyone of her somewhat younger dressed up in tight black leather and holding a crop in one hand. She'd been quite a firecracker during their marriage always spicing it up right up to the day she'd been found dead. If anyone knew…but someone did and now that person was trying to blackmail him he realized when he opened up the monogrammed envelope. A carrier pigeon had flown over the boat and just dropped the damn thing in front of him and when he opened it, he gasped at the photo of Lila all gussied up in her leather and the words in dark font, printed across the photo, "I know".

So what did it mean anyway? That someone found out about the kinky side of one of PC's most upstanding, most solid marriages? Was this person going to keep quiet, probably not, in fact Edward felt sure a demand for financial compensation would soon followed, also delivered via carrier pigeon. Of course, that had to be an important clue to the identity of this fiend who knew about the darker past of more than a few of PC's wealthiest, most powerful denizens and no doubt about what really happened in the basement at the Q mansion. Damn he needed to pour himself a glass of Scotch on the Rocks and that would clear his mind so he could strategize his response to blackmail. But that cad Ric had been downing all the liquor straight from the bottle muttering about how Sonny ruined his life which had grown old even before the loser had resurfaced to be rescued. Ed knew they should have just let him drown in the flood but Skye wouldn't hear of it and he could refuse her nothing.

"Hey Eddy," the woman in question said, "We're almost there. I can sense it."

God he hoped so, because his stomach had growled for the last two days of hunger and he started looking at his relatives as to which one was the plumpest and would provide the least resistance. He eliminated Tracy straight off, that buzzard daughter of his would probably poison him, getting the final laugh as he expired. But there was always that slacker grandson of his, Dillon who was more portly than he remembered and still in a coma.

"There will be plenty of food I assure you," he said, "They'll stockpile some of the best supplies for those who can pay the most handsomely for them. Disasters like this one always bring out the greed and larceny in the lesser forms of life."

Skye just nodded and turned to see Tracy wearing her cursed necklace walk out on deck.

"Daddy…we're out of pizza and I just cracked the last of the wine," she said, "What are we going to do now?"

He just sighed and rolled his eyes at his big mistake in life and the only mistake he ever made who was trying to finish him off. He could see that her skin had grown paler and her eyes were surrounded with lines. Hopefully the curse was doing its worst or best to claim her as its latest victim.

"Ric made short work of everything," Edward said, "It's not too late to throw him overboard."

She frowned.

"Daddy…he owes you now for saving his miserable life," she said, "Why not use it to your advantage?"

Edward had to admit she made a good point.

"Okay then I'll come up with something when we hit dry land."

Tracy smiled the usual trace of evil glimmering in her eyes and Edward knew then she really was his daughter and hadn't wound up switched at birth which often happened at GH. Skye just looked at both of them flipping her fiery red hair off her shoulders.

"I'll go check on Dillon."

Tracy and her father watched her go and she muttered.

"I don't think I trust her with my son," she said, "What if she does anything to remove one more obstacle between her and your fortune?"

Edward sighed.

"Tracy, she's not like you," he said, "She's the Christ to your anti-Christ. She would never stab me in the back figuratively or literally."

Tracy rolled her eyes.

"Daddy that was an accident," she said, "The ice pick just slipped, I swear."

Like he'd believe that having lost track of how many times his daughter had tried to kill him believing he'd leave everything to her. He really should tell her about the new changes in his will but that could wait until they reached shore and got a good meal inside them.

Yes, but wouldn't she be surprised and then she'd really want to kill him…unless the necklace got her first. Lila's last gift given that Tracy had never been her favorite child.

* * *

Alexis rested herself for a moment by sitting in a chair watching Franco continue to glue credit cards in an outline around her daughter's form against a wall. Really the man was not only talented but quite clever. The perfect man for to reform the slut in her daughter and maybe get her to wear some decent threads that didn't leave parts of her body exposed that shouldn't be. Not like that no good thug Jason who would probably show up at the altar of his wedding to Sam with twin guns blazing, rushing into the church and then orchestrating a perfectly choreographed roll down the aisle as he shot his guns.

No, Alexis didn't want bloodshed at any of her daughters' weddings not even Sam's. She did want her daughter to stop acting so loose especially while her mother was on trial for her life for a murder she didn't remember committing. What if the jury threw her under the guillotine because they believed her daughter to be a skank?

She shivered at the thought. Mac walked up behind her and she flinched when he touched her shoulder gently.

"Mac…"

He smiled broadly though he looked a bit tired.

"Hi Alexis…did I scare you?"

She shook her head.

"Not really…I'm just a bit on edge, I mean we've got a killer on the loose and I could be next."

He sighed.

"Alexis I don't think you're on the killer's list."

She folded her arms.

"Why not…am I not important enough?"

He winced.

"No it's not that…it's just that you're a bit too old to fit the profile. You're not in high school anymore."

He had a point there. Not that she couldn't remember what that had been like, she remembered every single moment except for conceiving her eldest daughter. The guy she had coupled with still remained a blur to her. For years, she had apparently forgotten she even had a daughter until it just hit her in a flash.

Damn life was strange most of the time but unless it impacted her she didn't worry about it.

"Alexis…"

"What Mac…have you found the killer yet?"

He shook his head.

"Not yet but I just wanted to ask…if we could get together for coffee sometime."

She thought about it. Mac was a nice guy, he didn't light her afire like her roster of bad boys but maybe she needed a change.

"Okay…we'll set a date…if the coffee place is still standing after the flood."

He smiled and then groaned as he saw the aging flower child approach, her blond hair streaming over her shoulders as she stood there in a rainbow shirt, bell bottoms and clogs.

"Felicia…"

She just folded her arms showing off her charm bracelets.

"Mac…I told you I need you," she said, "I can't reach that no good ex of mine on the phone."

"Felicia, that's because the lines are down."

She looked puzzled for a long moment then a light bulb went up.

"Oh…oh okay I just wanted to make sure Maxie and Georgie were safe and sound."

Mac just sighed again.

"Felicia, Georgie…she's dead. You know that."

She wrinkled up her forehead.

"Really…? Man, what a downer…how could she go and do that to me?"

"She was killed by a serial killer. You missed her funeral."

She shrugged.

"I was busy…I was touring with Cleo's band…we've been doing college campuses and coffee houses."

Alexis just watched the two banter and didn't get why Mac would even hang with a woman like Felicia, who just looked spaced out whenever she did show up back in PC which was hardly ever.

She'd make a bunch of claims about how she'd really changed this time, tuned back in after tuning out and then break them one by one before disappearing again.

* * *

Maxie didn't know her mother had dropped in because she was busy trying to keep Spinelli from fading away. He'd woken up crying for a toke, his face blotched from the fever that had gripped his body as a result of the unknown plague that hit the center.

If a flood hadn't been bad enough, if a serial killer running loose and gouging women's eyes out hadn't been just morbid, if that tramp Sam hadn't been hitting on every guy in the place while she was stuck helping Liz save lives with a myriad of tools…life just wasn't fair.

"Can I have a chisel please," Liz sighed, "I need help over here with removing shrapnel from that latte machine explosion."

Maxie didn't want to leave her beloved as he seemed deliriously calling himself the Jackal again and talking about some creepy woman lurking around wearing a veil. It must be the high fever talking again. She eased herself away from him and went to help Liz with her latest surgery.

They'd been trapped in this center for what weeks now and everyone around her was t least getting some action while her guy had gotten sick instead. She had taken a break to get some coffee a while ago and had seen Johnny pressing some nubile thing against the wall and she'd just sighed, envying their frolicking.

Wishing she hadn't felt this huge sense of obligation to even help Liz. But it didn't last long as she sought out and found a chisel which Liz then stabbed into a young man's chest to do thoracic surgery. Looking at her, Maxie could tell it was going to be another long night.


	70. Chapter 70

Felicia just looked blankly at Mac.

"Georgia is dead…my little girl?"

Mac just sighed at her not having the heart to tell her that her daughter not only had been mercilessly killed but that she hadn't been a little girl for a long time. But then it's not exactly like her deadbeat mother had been around in a while and he was beginning to wonder if Felicia was all right in the head.

"Yes Felicia…it's been several years now."

Felicia's lips just quivered.

"But…but that can't be," she said, "She wasn't born underneath the table of that diner that long ago."

No, that had been true but Felicia had to know that children aged faster here than they did in other places. And Georgia had grown up faster than most. Mac had reared her like he had all of the wayward children born of secretive fathers and wayward mothers.

"Felicia I really don't think you'd know, not having been here in years."

She looked lost for a moment, somewhere inside her cluttered head. Maybe it had been the wanderlust, or the wanton lust she had for Frisco Jones or this instability inside her, after all she had fully embraced the delusion that she'd been some Aztec Princess.

Then there had been the drugs.

Poor Georgia had tried to survive the best she could without a mother's guidance like her sister Maxie and of course Robin…Then again if there hadn't been such an epidemic of neglectful mothers, PC probably wouldn't exist.

"Look Felicia, it's too late to help Georgia…"

"Georgia…"

And that's when he knew that she'd hit the weed again. That meant someone inside the evacuation center was dealing drugs. Well, with a serial killer wandering around loose he didn't have time to deal with every crime that had hit PC since the flood. But if it got worse, he might have to start deputizing some people…but looking around at what he had to work with…he hoped to delay that action as long as possible.

"Georgia is dead…"

Felicia shook her head.

"No Mac…I just saw her..she was a little translucent but I knew it was her."

But he put on one of his stern looks.

"No Felicia, it's you who are only seeing things because you've been hitting the grass."

She frowned at him, flipping one of her blond braids back.

"Have not…how can you say such a thing? I'm the best mama ever."

Mac just looked away, suddenly unable to look at her but Felicia just smiled back at him.

"Look I know Georgia's around here somewhere," she said, "I'll just see if I can ask Robin to bake her favorite cookies…"

She wandered off still talking and Mac just shook his head.

* * *

Alexis just looked over at her oldest daughter in approval. Franco had finished his artwork having pasted a collection of sparkly plastic credit cards around her. Sam had smiled at him the whole entire time as he told her that this would be his best piece of artwork ever. Just think, if Sam realized that a talented man like Franco could take her places that Jason could not…wedding bells could be heard soon. All that Alexis wanted for her daughter was to be happy and oh, a bit less of a tramp.

"Mommy…?"

Alexis broke away from her reverie to look down at her darling daughter Molly, the one who didn't give her any trouble.

"What dear?"

"I want…."

Alexis fluttered her eyelids.

"Look Molly, we'll be going home soon," she said, "I'm sure of it so don't you worry."

"No mommy…I want to tell you something."

Alexis narrowed her eyes and thought this was the time to show the world she was a good mother. Never mind that she hadn't seen….Kristina yeah that was it…in days or weeks or…and that Sam had gone astray with that thug Jason.

"What my little angel?"

Molly smiled and gestured to the doorway.

"It's out in the hallway waiting…"

Alexis furrowed her brow.

"What Molly…what's waiting?"

Molly's smile widened.

"I'll show you…."

* * *

Sonny and Kate snuggled together on the stoop in front of the building, the flood waters lapping at the bottom step. They had brought out warm mugs of hot chocolate to canoodle together away from all the chaos and drama inside.

As he gazed at the woman next to him, Sonny felt like he had finally come home. Yes, he knew he had believed that before with Brenda…Lily…Brenda…Carly…Alexis…Sam…Carly…Brenda…Jason…Carly…Olivia…Claudia…Carly…Brenda…Carly….but no, this was the real thing, he knew.

For only the second time in his life, Sonny was in love.

"Oh my darling Kate," he said, "After this is done, I swear to you on my pinkie ring we will head off to the chapel and get married."

She nodded.

"Oh Sonny, you are my true love…of all loves. We'll be so happy together."

Sonny's smile revealed dimples.

"I know and all those other women…my darling Kate they will be dead to me…do you hear that, dead to me…"

Her smile broadened.

"Oh Sonny my most darling," she said, "I know that you speak the truth…we should just get away from all this…we could find…a boat or anything that floats and just paddle away…"

Sonny frowned as he saw something floating by that looked familiar.

"Isn't that…isn't that Coleman's pool table?"

Kate shrugged.

"I once did him on it…oops I shouldn't have said that my dearest darling…it was but once."

Sonny snarled but it passed. After all, he and Carly…never mind. But everything else left his head as he lowered his mouth to move closer to Kate's waiting lips…

"Hey there…give us a hand," a booming voice said, "We need your help."

He looked up and saw a large row boat with Eddy Q standing at the bow while several other people rowed. The boat towed something behind it that looked…no was it really a coffin?

"No more time wasted…I demand you help us."

Sonny snapped.

"I'm not your bus boy Eddy," he said, "in fact I can order you dead like…"

He snapped his fingers or tried to several times.

"…that…"

Edward rolled his eyes and the boat came close enough to where someone looking like Ric was prodded to moor it as the bedraggled crew disembarked onto the step. Sonny did get up to help Skye leave the boat as he'd always had a soft spot for her. She smiled at him.

"Thank you Sonny…still such a gentleman."

His smile reached from ear to ear.

"For you my doll, anything…"

Kate just slapped him playfully and headed back inside the building and the rest of them followed. But when Sonny tried to follow, someone grabbed his arm and he saw that it was Tracy. He tried to shake it loose because he never liked her.

"What's your problem?"

She showed her teeth.

"My necklace has been cursed," she said, "If I go in there…"

Sonny sighed.

"We are all cursed…I fear that one of my enemies must be plotting against me…who else in there is as important as me?"

She folded her arms.

"Get over it Sonny…Only a Quartermaine would attract such evil against it," she said, "It's all well and good, as I shall not succumb to the curse…you shall see."

She walked inside and Sonny shook his head following her.

No one seemed to notice when the latest group of refugees walked inside the center. Tracy went to hit the soup line which stood unattended, putting herself in the front of the line which almost started a riot. Until Mac stepped forward threatening to put them all under arrest.

Tracy sniffed at him.

"You don't have enough pairs of handcuffs."

Mac sighed feeling lower because that was certainly the case.

"Pssst…."

He looked over at Dianne who stood there having changed into another one of her leather outfits. She removed a pair of cuffs from her belt and tossed them his way. He deftly caught them and thanked her.

"No problem," she said, "I always like to keep a spare handy in case…things heat up."

When the crowd by the soup line table saw that, they quieted down but Edward walked up to Tracy and grabbed her.

"You'll wait in line…after me."

No one noticed that Nikolas had left his coffin and started walking to the kitchen. Robin looked up at him and before he could say anything to her, her lip curled into a snarl. Nikolas felt a strange sensation seize his body at that point, his skin tingled and he saw the sparkles in front of his eyes first.

"What…."

But when his vision cleared, Robin had disappeared and standing in front of him was something much taller and hairier…

* * *

Alexis followed Molly out into the hallway.

"Darling…I really need to get back to the soup line…they need me…and you know Alice will be looking for me."

But Molly had started humming to herself.

"I really need to get back…"

"Just a little longer mommy…."

Alexis felt the hairs prickle on the back of her neck as they continued down the dark hallway until suddenly she saw a shape on the ground up ahead.

"Molly…honey…what's that?"

Her daughter smiled like a cherub.

"You'll see…."

But Alexis knew that the still form on the floor could only be one thing. It had to be…and as they neared it, she saw it was indeed another dead young woman…with tawny hair in curls. Her head turned away from them but Alexis knew if she saw her face, her eyes would be ripped out of her head. How she knew this, she couldn't figure out but it must be one of those hunches.

"Molly what…"

"She's dead….very dead…."

Alexis approached to look closer at the dead girl even though it repulsed her. She wore a red sweater with what looked like a monogrammed name on it.

"She's not one of us…"

Alexis had no idea what her daughter was telling her but figured she should play along.

"Then who is she darling?"

Molly paused, her eyes staring straight at Alexis.

"She's one of them…"

That's when Alexis read the name monogrammed in cursive on the girl's sweater.

Starr….


	71. Chapter 71

Alexis just looked up in utter confusion.

"Who the hell is Starr?"

Molly just smiled.

"She is not one of us mother," she said, "She is one of them."

That just confused Alexis all the more. She might be a trained legal eagle and mother of two…wait three daughters but things like this just confounded her. She looked around for guidance.

"Where's Mac," she said, "He keeps all the details straight. He's smart that way."

Molly just gave a slight shrug and walked away, leaving her mother alone with the body of a nubile young woman with missing eyes. Alexis just wrung her hands not knowing what to do next.

"How typical of everyone to do this to me," she said, "to leave me to handle everything by myself."

Then someone crept out of the shadows and she saw that Jerry had once again returned but wait a minute, if he was in the vicinity of the murder did that mean he had committed it? No, of course not, that would just be silly. After all, she took pride in having a very good ability to judge the character of others. Sure some people had said that Jerry was a terrorist, a killer and had a roster of different aliases, some of which she had learned when they had…well she knew him to be an honest person.

Not that he didn't have a tinge of badness within him, darkness in his soul because if he didn't, she probably wouldn't feel this burning in her loins for him on sight…she wouldn't crave him as much as she did right now. Because of all the women in the world, she alone had the ability to save men from their own demons and turn them towards the light…after getting what she needed from them first.

"Jerry where did you come from?"

His silky voice filled the air.

"My darling….I never left," he said, "I was always here."

Alexis felt uneasiness fill her which stoked up her libido. God, the way he looked at her right now made her want him all the more. Right here, right now dead body be damned. After all, given that the woman had already died, it's not like reporting the body had to be done right now. Whoever she was, she was already dead.

She moved closer to him, hoping he'd take her in his arms and carry her to the nearest flat surface, horizontal or vertical. But he eyed the deceased woman on the floor.

"Another one…such a young girl too," he said, "Did you know her?"

Alexis shook her head.

"Did you?"

Jerry paused almost as if he were thinking about it.

"No…no I don't," he said, "Well not really…not long ago during my travels…I stopped at a charming little village a couple states away from her."

Alexis frowned hoping he'd get to the point soon so they would do other, more pleasurable things.

"What town?"

He sighed.

"I can't remember the name but I remember seeing someone just like her."

Alexis shook her head.

"I know…there are so many people who just showed up at this evacuation center and in the soup line that I've never seen before…like they just showed up from nowhere."

Jerry stroked his lower jaw with his thumb.

"They would be part of an invasion," he said, "or part of a criminal element that wants to set up shop here."

Alexis didn't think that likely. Who would want to come out to PC especially since most of the town was now underwater? The flood had been how many days….weeks ago and the waters had yet to recede.

"I don't know Jerry but these murders…they started happening even before the flood…not that it matters because there are so many more important things going on…."

Jerry's brows rose.

"Like what, my darling."

"Like this…"

She slipped her arms around his rugged body to pull him closer so she could kiss him, so he could stroke the tension out of her body and replace it with sated desire.

"Ah…Alexis…you read my mind…"

They started kissing sidestepping the corpse, wrapping themselves up on each other and shutting the rest of the world out. But then a shadow loomed over them.

"Excuse me…"

That broke Alexis and Jerry apart and they turned to see Lulu standing there.

"Have you seen my Johnny Wonderful?"

Alexis frowned at the clueless blonde in front of her.

"I don't know…when did you last see him?"

Lulu just looked confused and the lines in her forehead became more prominent which showed she was thinking very hard.

"I don't know…I saw him one moment and then…"

"He was wrong," Alexis finished for her, "I knew it."

Lulu looked totally lost now.

"Knew what?"

Alexis stuck one of her pointed fingers up in triumph.

"I knew it," she said, "Johnny may or may not be wonderful but he's also a killer."

Lulu frowned.

"A what…?"

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"A murderer Lulu," she said, "a cold blooded killer who stalks young women as his prey before he kills them and takes their eyes out as trophies."

"As what…?"

"Trophies…to save away to remind him of his diabolical deeds," Alexis said, "I never did trust Johnny…he seemed way too smooth and his pants are too tight."

Lulu's lower lip quivered.

"I pick out his pants," she said, "and he's not a killer. How can you make up something so vile…so evil?"

Alexis sighed hoping that somehow she could get through to the bubblehead in the poodle skirt.

"It has to be him…he disappears before every single murder."

Lulu folded her arms.

"So…that doesn't make him a killer."

Alexis leaned forward and enunciated each word slowly.

"Yes…it….does….and…when…Mac…shows…up…he'll….arrest…him."

Lulu shook her head.

"No…how do we know it's not you Alexis," she said, "After all, you're the one who's on trial for murder before the flood."

"I am innocent," Alexis said, "They couldn't even tell me who I murdered."

Lulu just looked agitated and as if she were about to cry.

"No…no it couldn't be my Johnny Wonderful who did the murders," she said, "I'm going to tell my mommy on you…"

Alexis snorted.

"Lulu…dear your mother's catatonic."

The young girl couldn't respond to that so she just stomped off in a huff. Jerry turned to Alexis with a smile.

"Now that she's gone…why don't we pick up where we left off?"

Alexis smiled back before they resumed kissing while Starr remained dead on the floor.

* * *

Sam looked up at Franco. She knew she had been surrounded by those pretty sparkly credit cards but her fingers itched to grab hold of just one of them. Her entire body itched and she ached to just snatch one off the wall and rush off to the nearest internet connection to charge it up. She desperately needed some new threads. If she was ever going to get a real job, she needed to get herself a new wardrobe. She would show everyone in PC that she was more than just a gold digging tramp.

Where was Jason anyway? She had left to follow the trail of credit cards left by Franco but had he followed her or had he gone off to talk to Sonny? She knew she should probably try to find out because despite what Franco had done for her, she still needed her Jas.

"Hey Sam, where's Robin?"

Sam looked up and saw Nikolas standing there pasty white and he looked as sparkly as the credit cards. Only he wasn't a credit card, still he must have a collection of them in his pocket. She smoothed her clothes, pulled her saggy pants up and flipped the tendrils of hair off her face.

"Oh hi Nikolas…what do you need her for?"

He looked brooding.

"I needed to get some food," he said, "I came on the Q's yacht and they were all out of pizza. So they started at each other and it almost got ugly."

Sam's mouth formed a large "o".

"Gee that sounds rough," she said, "You know Nikolas…I'm trying to find someone who will do me a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

She dug her toe into the floor looking sideways.

"Someone who will help get me some new threads," she said, "I'm not at my best and I need to be."

He sighed.

"All my possessions washed away," he said, "all I have left is my coffin."

She digested that and then her brows rose.

"Can you hock it?"

He looked taken aback.

"No…it's all I have...and I might need it."

Sam shrugged and then walked away from him to go continue her search.

Liz backed against the wall, utterly exhausted. She had torn off her surgical outfit after it became drenched with blood and now was left with her French maid's outfit.

"Where's Robin?"

Then she looked up and saw the stoned looking woman wearing the hippy beads wondering into the triage area.

"Felicia?"

The woman pushed her blonde hair back and looked at Liz.

"Is that you Liz," she said, "You got to help me. I'm looking for my daughter Georgie."

Liz just looked at her in confusion.

"You won't find her here. She's dead. She was murdered in a most heinous crime."

Felicia's eyes widened.

"That can't be true," she said, "I thought I just saw her a while ago."

Liz sighed, running her hand through her knotted hair.

"That can't be," she said, "I was at GH when her body came in and it went straight to the morgue. She had no chance."

Felicia stood there frozen as she digested the news. Then she started shaking her head over and over, her face crumpling.

"…."

Her scream shook the building. Liz patted her on the shoulder.

"It's going to be okay Felicia," she said, "You will adjust to the sad reality that some people just die sooner than others…like I know I had more children than I can count…"

Felicia just looked anguished.

"It's all his fault you know…Frisco is no good…no good…no good…J had to parent those two girls all by myself with no help from anyone."

Liz frowned, knowing that wasn't quite how it went but she said nothing, just patted her shoulder and smiled at her.

"Why don't you let Robin make some of her wholesome soup? That should help dry up those tears and turn that frown upside down."

Felicia sniffled and nodded and then left Liz standing there to turn around and face the carnage of her makeshift operating room. No room for the bodies, they were tucked away in the pantry even those that had been…murdered by the faceless killer.

The one who lurked out there somewhere…not that she had enough time to concern herself with the dead when there were still so many living she needed to save…looking down at the long procession of patients left to cut open and fix…she just sighed and put her surgical outfit back on to get back to work.


	72. Chapter 72

"Hey Kristina are you going to come with?"

She looked up to see Amy gesturing at her to accompany her and Laura somewhere. Kristina thought about it. She had been unsettled when she had left her therapy session with Gail. She hadn't known how she had gotten there and it had just seemed so peculiar as did most things in this alternate universe.

Where was the woman who brought her here when they had climbed up that last flight of stairs to escape the flood? Was this actually a nightmare from which she'd soon awaken?

Amy just looked at her insistently. Laura just looked at her with somewhat vacant eyes. Kristina was beginning to wonder if she were completely right in the head. Not to mention that the version of PC's most famous heroine didn't seem to measure up to her legendary status much. In fact, she seemed downright ordinary. Two men had vied for her attention. The cleaned cut attorney Scot and the dangerously disheveled Luke…and Kristina knew who won out in the end and how the prize they had fought over had wound up catatonic in the loony bin.

"Where are you going?"

Amy looked at her as if that were a stupid question and Laura just looked. But Kristina wanted to know what she was getting herself into before joining them.

"Why we're going to Bryan and Claudia's pre-pre-pre-engagement party of course."

Kristina searched her head to try to remember who that couple had been and remembered vaguely that they had just shadowed Luke and Laura around and didn't do much else. No one knew how they had gotten together and then one day…they had just disappeared without most people noticing.

"Okay…maybe I'll go along."

It's not like she had anything else to do. She couldn't find the staircase that had brought her here and her guide…she hadn't seen her in what seemed like forever. She fell in step next to the two other women.

"So who's going to be there?"

Amy looked confused.

"Why everyone of course…why do you even ask? Rosie's going to make some of her Irish stew and corned beef and Scott and Laura are in the wedding party so they'll make speeches…"

Kristina looked over at Laura who remained silent, staring fixedly at something.

"So what about Luke…?"

Amy shrugged.

"What about him," she said, "I saw him slinking by the waterfront earlier meeting with that unseemly guy…you know the one who's into astrology."

Kristina tried to figure out what they were saying and tried to think back to PC's history…at least the way she had learned it though touring the local museum and reading the bathroom walls at school.

"He's up to no good," Amy continued, "I mean what's up with his hair. It wouldn't kill him to run a comb through it once in a while."

Laura just kept staring. Kristina still didn't know what was up with her. Then she looked over and saw someone who looked just like Alexandra Q who had died in some mysteriously shrouded plot to freeze PC and then the world. It had something to do with her grandfather and an assortment of brothers and cousins. The Cassadines hadn't yet mastered how to rise from the dead yet but they did know how to try to freeze one small dumpy town in the backwoods of New York State.

"Amy you must stop immediately."

The nurse looked up at her with contempt.

"You weren't invited to the party," she said, "because you're such a meanie."

Alexandra rolled her eyes.

"I'm not…I had to demote Laura. I had no choice…Eddy would have fired her."

Amy put her hands on her hips.

"For what…Laura's the best…the best secretary ever."

Alexandra sighed, her hands reaching towards the mysterious necklace she wore.

"She was lusting after the hired help," she said, "and combined, both Luke's and her productivity had decreased 30%."

Amy shook her head.

"Lies…all lies…isn't that true Laura?"

But Laura just kept staring ahead apparently unaware of what was taking place.

Alexandra gave her a contemptuous look.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing…we have to go now and Laura doesn't need Luke anyhow."

They walked away from Alexandra who continued down the tree lined street. Kristina had remembered very little about Alexandra but had there been a rivalry between her and Laura over Luke? That puzzled her because Luke looked like some seedy looking pervert with retro clothes. Hardly worthy of being PC's sexiest pinup for 10 years running…but then a lot of acid had been dripping in the seventies she had heard.

"Ignore all that," Amy told her, "Focus on Brian and Claudia's party."

Kristina tried to do that but her mind kept wandering, wondering why PC's history as it had been told was being rewritten.

* * *

Alexis looked at Felicia standing in front of her. The aging hippy who looked like she were about to pull another vanishing act. Good…because right now all Alexis wanted to do was smack her.

"Read my lips Felicia. Georgie is dead….D-E-A-D dead, got it?"

The other woman's lips began to tremble.

"And I told you that can't be true," she said, "I just saw her. I really did and don't tell me I didn't."

Alexis smiled, willing herself to be patient.

"Felicia…dear…what have you been smoking," she said, "Did you just do as they call it, drop some acid?"

Felicia shook her head quickly.

"Oh no…no…I don't do drugs at least not lately and I told you, I told Mac and Liz and everyone that I know what I saw and it was Georgie."

Alexis could care less who Felicia saw or thought she saw. She just wanted the clueless woman out of her face. But Felicia didn't take hints well. She looked up and thankfully Mac arrived.

"Felicia, what are you still doing here?"

She looked at him a bit dazed.

"Here…what do you mean? You know I'm looking for her."

Alexis just shot Mac a look.

"I tried to tell her Georgie was brutally murdered and left dead but she won't listen."

Mac sighed.

"Felicia…I IDed the body myself," he said, "I know it was your daughter."

Felicia just shrugged.

"Whatever…"

And just like that she walked away. Mac looked at Alexis again.

"I tried telling her," he said, "but she never listens to me."

Alexis smiled.

"For someone who's royalty, she seems to have dipped in the shallow end of the gene pool."

"She's not a bad person Alexis."

"She's weak Mac…I don't know what you ever saw in her frankly."

He rubbed his forehead.

"Neither do I now…but we were mostly business partners who got together."

Alexis couldn't even picture that. After all, she and Max engaged in flirtatious banter over coffee maybe once every six months and then a couple times in between, they'd argue over her decision to defend Sonny or some other lowlife. They still hadn't even gone on a date not really.

Sometimes she looked at his earnest face and wished she weren't so into bad boys. That she could find a nice guy who understood her and make it work. But then, where would she go for getting down and dirty?

Of course unless she took a combination of nice guys and dirty devils to blend together…like taking some of Mac and mixing it up with a bit of Sonny, a whole lot of Jerry and some Jax…along with a small…no a tiny sliver of that cad ex of hers Ric.

Then again, the mixture would probably be like combining matter with anti-matter and the world would explode. After all hadn't some of her insane relatives tried this kind of experimentation with disastrous results?

"I did love Felicia once, really I did but she just kept taking off on these pilgrimages of hers and left me with the kids."

Yes, Alexis knew about that. But then not every woman could be as great a mother as she. Really, she should get an award for being so great, so selfless. After all, she'd tried to mold Sam to a dignified young lady and even though it hadn't worked, she should still be rewarded for her efforts.

"Mac, you need to just forget about her," Alexis said, "and find yourself someone much, much better."

He furrowed his brow obviously thinking about her advice.

"I…can't…I can't think about myself while a murderer is on the loose taking young innocent lives…"

Alexis just shook her head. Really did Mac know that there were sometimes you just had to think about yourself?

But Mac had already walked away from her.

* * *

Skye sighed as she sampled warm pieces of bread that Robin had just pulled out of the oven. They tasted so heavenly and left her feeling a bit light headed. It must be all that time she'd spent trapped out in the flood that caused her to feel somewhat imbalanced.

"Hey doll face, you think we can leave this room and explore?"

She smacked Ric and gave him a withering look.

"Really could you be any more disgusting," she said, "I stuck with you out in the flood because I had no choice. But now that we're safe, I just want you out of my sight."

Ric looked stung but he covered it with a smile.

"Skye, you can't mean that," he said, "You know Eddy Q can't give you what I can."

A grotesque look appeared on her face.

"Oooh just get away from me…"

Ric chuckled.

"You'll return when you realize I'm the best thing here."

She shook her head.

"Yeah well I think I saw Alexis around here somewhere."

A look of panic appeared on Ric's face.

"Alexis…really…where?"

His head spun around to look and Skye just started to walk away.

"Hey wait up…can't we talk about this some more? You know how hot I am…."

Skye rolled her eyes wondering how hot he'd look after Alexis caught sight of her sorry excuse for an ex who had fornicated with her daughter on the living room rug. No taste or class whatsoever, not like the other men that Skye had known.

"Where's Sonny…is he here?"

Skye smiled at Ric.

"I'm sure he is…with his usual harem of women. Things never change in PC even after most of it has been washed away."

Dianne walked up to them, her whip in hand. Ric's brows rose when he saw it.

"Hey you're not going to use that thing on me are you? Alexis…she forgave me."

She threw him a pithy look as if he were no more worthy than a bug underfoot.

"Forgiven you…I don't think so," she said, "If I were you, I'd get out of here right now before she sees you. You do know before the flood came, she was being tried for murder."

His eyes widened.

"I didn't know…who did she kill this time?"

Dianne shrugged.

"We still don't know this time," she said, "but we'll know next time."

Ric narrowed his eyes.

"Is that a threat…are you threatening me?"

Dianne smiled.

"No…just watch your back Ric. There's a killer or two walking among us…so you'd better watch your step…"  
Ric just looked dismayed as this clearly wasn't the welcome he had hoped for when he had finally made it safely to shore. Yeah, he'd been away from PC for a while but with his absence surely the hearts had grown fonder.

And then he turned around and saw her standing there, as cherubic as an angel.

His little daughter Molly.


	73. Chapter 73

Ric stared at his darling daughter Molly who just stood there holding onto what looked to be one of her dolls.

"Molly…darling…look who's here…"

She furrowed her brow beneath her dark colored bangs and looked at him closely.

"Daddy…?"

It had been the first time Ric had seen her since the last time he'd disappeared. Now she looked at him as if she barely knew him. That was her mother's fault of course. If Alexis had been a bit nicer and more understanding of his needs as a man…then he wouldn't have had to disappear in the first place. But then if he tried to explain that to her, she'd just give him one of those deadly looks channeled from her father's side of her family tree and freeze him out again. It had been her fault of course that he'd turned to Reese and then Sam during that torrid interlude on the living room rug. How would he know that Alexis would just happen to catch them at it, didn't the woman have any respect for a person's privacy?

She could have knocked or rung the doorbell first…but then again she could have channeled that hidden part of her that had killed. There had been something deep inside her carefully locked up but just awaiting the right opportunity to be unleashed into a flurry of violence devastating in its magnitude and scope.

Because Alexis was most definitely her father's daughter…which he didn't need to be a mama's boy himself to recognize.

"Molly…Daddy loves you."

She folded her arms still holding onto her tattered doll. He couldn't see its face. But he saw her delicate little features on her own crumble in front of him and it tugged at his heart. Many people, Alexis included didn't think he had a heart but he did…how on earth could he have become so misunderstood? Again, all her fault…she had painted him as the ultimate villain…a mini-me to the father of her daughter Kristina. But then he heard Molly whimper and it nearly undid him.

"Then why did Daddy leave me?"

The plaintiveness in her voice which warbled with sadness left him silent and then he heard the footsteps coming from behind him. He closed his eyes to steel him off from her wrath. Then he felt a burning sensation stab his shoulder blades and then a crackling sound.

Alexis hadn't come upon him unarmed.

He turned around and saw that she welded a whip. She had actually flicked her wrist and sent it twisting in the air like a snake before it struck him enough to make him wince.

"Alexis…don't…!"

She arched her brows.

"Don't…what Ric?"

He sighed, looking in her face for a trace of mercy and finding none. In fact, she prepared to flick her wrist again.

"Nooooo…."

Crack!

Ric screamed in agony. What, had the tip of the whip been dipped in acid? His flesh felt like it was burning.

"You don't like that…then just turn around and leave like you never dropped by…"

"What?"

She sneered at him, still holding the whip in position.

"Just leave Ric and we can all pretend you're still off on one of your irresponsible sabbaticals from your obligations here. That you've once again abandoned your daughter without looking back."

Ric just looked incredulous.

"Alexis I had to leave…to protect all of you," he said, "and keep you all safe."

Alexis stepped forward.

"No…you left because you were determined to go find Skye and shack up with her," she said, "Well did you find her and hook up?"

Ric looked sheepish.

"Well yeah…yeah I did."

"Is she here with you?"

Ric remained silent a moment. Talk about damned if he did, damned if he didn't. Would Alexis weld the whip at him again and sear off all of his flesh? What would happen to Skye?

"Is she Ric? This is not a rhetorical question."

Ric nodded, knowing that she'd find out soon enough. It was a small enough building and though crammed with people, the two would eventually bump into each other.

"She's with Eddy and the rest of the Qs."

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"Oh so they're here too, even Ned?"

Ric rather enjoyed this part even though to do so might mean meeting up with the whip again.

"Yes…and Lois is here….though she can't seem to find Brook Lynn."

Alexis shrugged.

"I saw her a few hours ago…or maybe it was days…I'm sure she's probably holed up somewhere breaking crystal with her voice."

Ric shook his head.

"Felicia's in a bad way."

Alexis looked at him sternly.

"Ric don't change the subject…but yes, she is…she must have not gotten good happy grass."

Ric sighed.

"With Spinelli in a coma fighting for his life against the killer virus, no one's getting any happy grass or perky pills or even acid."

Molly looked at both of her parents. Apparently they had both forgotten she was standing there. Then Ric remembered first.

"Oh Molly…don't listen to that. Daddy doesn't do any of those things and as for mommy…"

Molly looked over at her mother with big solemn eyes. Alexis rolled her eyes at her ex.

"Molly…honey…I only do a little happy grass now and then…for medicinal purposes."

Ric looked over at a man standing across the room with some buckets of paint and brushes, getting ready to do a mural.

"Who's that?"

Alexis smiled.

"Oh that's Franco…one of the bright lights of this entire disaster," she said, "He's going to be Sam's new fellow."

Ric narrowed his eyes.

"I've seen him somewhere before. I know it and I don't think it's some place good Alexis."

She just shook her head at him.

"Oh Ric…who are you to give Sam dating advice," she said, "At least I was able to trade that rug in that you two ruined after I burned it for 50% off a new one."

Ric got a pained look in his eyes.

"Oh Alexis are you ever going to forgive me for that one itty bitty mistake?"

But she looked at him and he read on her face her answer.

No, she clearly thought not.

* * *

Sam had bumped into Jason after fooling around a bit with Franco the artist. No, not the way that most people might think, he was too much of a gentleman for that. And though she thought that a bit strange at first, she rather liked it.

Not to mention his shiny, sparkly plastic, one of which rested in the pockets of her loose pants.

"So Jas has Mac found the killer yet?"

He just looked at her mutely and shook his head.

"Oh so the killer's still running around loose," she said, scratching her head, "I wonder which one of us will be next."

Jason's eyes didn't blink as he appeared to think about that then he released his breath in a sigh.

"Starr died."

Sam frowned.

"Who's Starr?"

"She's a woman from out of town."

Sam folded her arms.

"Not one of your ex-girlfriends I hope," she said, "Jas we talked about this already. I'm your one and only…especially after you kicked Lollypop Liz to the curb."

He just stared at her, and then slid his fingers through his immobile hair. It hadn't moved a bit in the past days or weeks unlike everyone else's.

"Sam…I've got to solve this murder case," Jason said, "I know I can do it…and prove to Sonny that I'm his best man."

Sam looked at the trace of worry in Jason's brow. She saw how this new guy had crashed the evacuation center and all of a sudden, he was Sonny's new BFF. Even though no one had ever heard of this John McBain character before and Sonny had never mentioned him either. Now Sonny was thinking about having him be head of security…which had been Max's position. She knew that Max had spent most of the past six month chained to Dianne's bed or in her dungeon so he wouldn't care.

But news like this…it just had cut Jason to the core. She just knew she had to make it all better for him.

"Where did all these people come from…and why do they act like they know us? I mean…this Blair chick with tacky threads and some crazy accent comes up to Carly and acts like she's her long-lost sister."

Jason frowned.

"I thought they were cousins…separated at birth or something."

Sam sighed gripping her hair with both hands.

"I just can't take all these changes Jas," she said, "They're all supposed to be looking at us….not at these castoffs."

Jason just sighed and as she grabbed hold of him to draw him closer to her so she could mold her body against his, he let her.

But then again, he had his own problems. He had just gotten these mysterious emails from two ex-girlfriends he supposedly had named Jessica and Tess. Only when they sent him photos of themselves wearing skimpy lingerie, they looked almost exactly alike. Almost enough to be twins, had the whole world gone crazy? Because if he'd been two-timing with twins, wouldn't he at least remember the highlights?

Sam just snuggled against him closer oblivious to the turmoil which ran through his mind and the lust that burned in his loins as he thought about those emails.

"Oh Jas…you are hot for me aren't you? Let's go do it…."

Jason looked at her.

"Now…but…"

She burned him with her eyes.

"Yes…now…I need you and you want me…this ridiculous vow of yours…"

Suddenly they were interrupted by a crashing noise and looked over to see Sonny shatter some crystal on the floor in front of both Brenda and Carly. For a while now, the two women had been seated at opposite corners of the room snarling at each other.

But Carly had tried to charge at Brenda with all her feral rage and Brenda had gotten up to defend herself honing her manicured talons.

So Sonny had run gone up to head his two women off at the pass to deal with them before going off to reunite with his true love Kate on the back stoop.

"You are Dead to Me…both of you…"

That stopped them for about two seconds and then they just turned to face him.

"Shut up Sonny…."

Both in unison before they tore into each other hissing and biting as they rolled on the floor, one on top of the other before the bottom flipped the top over. Everyone rushed on over to watch the fight but Sonny just walked to meet Kate.

Franco watched the fighting from his vantage point with his buckets of paint, his brushes and the wall as his canvass.

"This could be my best artwork ever…"

The fighting continued.

* * *

Kate sat on the stoop looking out into the flooded water, now turning fetid and overwhelming her with the most disgustingly pungent odors. So much so she felt like passing out. How could have a town so filled with beauty like PC turned into such a festering wasteland?

She mused on that without hearing a child's voice behind her singing getting ever closer…


	74. Chapter 74

Sonny didn't hear the child's voice but then his attention had been elsewhere. He'd been so intent on leaving the chaos that had just broken out in the main area of the evacuation center. Carly the mother of one of his children and Brenda the mother of another one of them had been rolling on the floor, teeth bared and claws grabbing hold of one another's flesh.

Teeth that he had paid to cap, nails that he had paid to manicure and the flesh, well some of that had come from his personal plastic surgeon too. But despite what many people might think, Sonny abhorred conflict and violence and as fast as his Cuban heels could take him, he was gone.

"Where you heading boss?"

That'd be Max imploring him to stick behind and deal with the crisis but he'd be out of luck.

"I'll see you later pal."

Max would just have to do what Sonny paid him good money to do and that was to referee the more volatile members of his harem. He had better things to do himself like canoodle with his first and only true love Kate on the stoop outside this building.

He dashed outside and saw her sitting there in her effervescent glow and that made him fall in love all over again.

"Kate my darling…"

She turned her hair around, her curls bouncing and smiled at him.

"Oh Sonny, my prince has come…"

He sat down next to her and lamented that he didn't have one of those root beer floats they had shared at Darby's Grill and Diner to give her.

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere ever again."

She sighed and he knew she believed him. She was like that, kind and trusting not a dried up trailer trashed harpy like Carly or a high maintenance sharp clawed mafia moll in training like Brenda. She was a woman he could trust not to ruin his life.

"We need to escape from here Sonny…I sense a dangerous presence."

Sonny sighed for he had heard the stories too about the murders that had ripped apart the camaraderie among the survivors of the flood.

"There have been murders Sonny and the victims' eyes have been ripped out."

He had heard that too and had mentally run through his list of known adversaries, enemies and ex-wives. Alive or dead, in PC it didn't matter. But his ruminations had left him stumped as he couldn't figure out who would kill and mutilate all these innocent young nubile women just to get back at him. Because of course it had to be about him, as everyone else's importance in this town paled in comparison to him.

Even the mayor ran a distant second.

"Sonny can't we just find a boat somewhere and just leave this wretched place?"

Sonny sighed again.

"Honey bun, there's no way out of here," he said, "and I have thought to look for one. I don't want any woman of mine to face danger."

Her eye lids fluttered.

"Oh Sonny…will you protect me from this menace?"

He pledged once again that he would do that. But in the back of his mind, he ran through that list of people who had it in for him once more. Which name, which face, who would concoct such a diabolical plot against him?

He had to figure out because time was running out and the woman he loved more than any other, the one sitting beside him, her life might depend on it.

* * *

Mac had searched the hallways with his flashlight back and forth once again, trailed by some of his officers who hadn't drowned in the flood. His brother Scorpio had texted him a few times offering to swoop in on his turbo powered helicopter to help him find the remorseless killer. Mac had begged off because he really needed to do this on his own. He had lived in the shadow of his shadowy older brother most of his life. He had taken care of his daughter, the one who was now baking bread and cookies and stirring up bowls of nourishing soup, all which had kept them alive up to this point.

"Where are you going?"

He looked up and saw Bobbie standing in one of the hallways dressed in her nurse's outfit. Blinked his eyes a couple times because he hadn't even remembered what she looked like.

"Bobbie?"

She eyed him impatiently.

"Yes…look I know I haven't been around but it's not like that's my fault."

He shook his head embarrassed.

"Oh no…I remember you…your daughter…Carly, she's ripping out Brenda's hair in the other room."

Bobbie shrugged.

"I birthed the tramp…and look how she repaid me. I disowned her a long time ago but then I wasn't needed anymore so I kind of disappeared."

Mac knew that to be true.

"There's a killer in your midst."

He nodded knowing that too.

"I'm looking for him…or her."

Bobbie just put her hand on her hip.

"You'll never find the killer unless you slip inside its skin and look through its eyes…then you'll know its dark, twisted soul."

Mac furrowed his brow confused by the instructions.

"Why are you telling me all this…?"

Bobbie smiled at him.

"Because you're nice Mac…most of the men in this town are lying, cheating jerks including my late husband. God, did he really have to screw my own daughter?"

Mac didn't even want to go there to answer that question.

"Look Bobbie I know you think that…but it's not true," he said, "I'm not nice at all…I'm really a very bad boy underneath."

Her brows cocked.

"Oh Mac, don't you know I don't play those games anymore? I've gone legit. I'm head nurse now…or I was until they made Liz head nurse and chief of staff."

Mac just shook his head.

"No…I'm bad, really bad and I can show you how bad…as soon as I catch the killer of course."

Bobbie just chuckled.

"Oh Mac…don't ever change. PC needs at least one fine upstanding young man…especially now."

Mac sighed feeling that no one out there really understood him. What it'd been like to grow up with an suave swashbuckler brother who had saved the world from a deep freeze while Mac had been walking the mean streets of PC checking parking meters. Scorpio dated women that Mac could only dream about while he'd been stuck with making do with delusional and fading flower children like Felicia and neurotic and uptight career women like Alexis.

"See you later Bobbie…I got a killer to find."

With that, she gently kissed him on the cheek and then walked away leaving him alone. Then from the fog that somehow had filled the hallway a familiar looking woman emerged.

"Alexis…?"

The woman smiled.

"I'm like my sister only better…"

Her cologne intoxicated him even before her hands touched him. Her lips attacked his hungrily and somewhere the back of his mind, he remembered she had a twin sister who had taken over her defense in the murder trial which seemed to be a lifetime ago. His last thought before she tugged at his buttoned up uniform and pulled him into the shadows.

* * *

Alexis had been looking for Mac wondering if he might want to break for a few moments and have coffee with her. Not that she'd had a cup of real coffee in weeks but what she really needed to do was talk to him and for him to help her fix her life.

She wasn't a horrible woman, a horrible mother and she wasn't a killer…at least not most of the time. If only he could help her figure out what to do. She had a daughter who was a gold digging tramp, one who had grown up and grown surly overnight and then disappeared and she had begun to notice something off about her youngest daughter Molly.

Not that it was her fault of course. That was all on her miserable excuse of a father, Ric who didn't do the honorable thing of dropping off the landscape for good but had the gall to show up with Skye on his arm who didn't do the honorable thing of dropping off the landscape for good but had the gall to show up with Skye on his arm. The woman who had betrayed the finer looking Alcazar brother…not the ugly one that had deserved to die….Alexis mused. She had really thought she had deserved a medal for offing Luis not public scorn.

Now Alexis had fantasized about Lorenzo and what it'd be like to roll on a bear skin rug with him even as he had tried to get her killed for what she'd done to this brother. She didn't blame him for that, didn't hold that against him because damn, he was just the hottest thing to hit PC.

But he'd died through violence too. Another hot man snuffed out in his prime.

"Alexis?"

She looked up and saw Franco there, wearing his smock which had been stained by paint.

"What is it?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I so enjoyed spending time with Sam. She's quite an inspiration for the greatest artwork ever created."

Alexis scratched her head.

"I thought you were in there being inspired by the latest Carly and Brenda catfight."

He sighed.

"Yes…they are beautiful art too…I'm thinking that a collage, a mosaic of all of PC's most lovely creatures will be most fitting."

Alexis sighed.

"It's not like you don't have enough time," she said, "We could be trapped in this building by the flood forever."

He smiled at her.

"Yes we could…but would that be such a tragedy? Things could be worse…much worse."

Alexis knew he spoke the truth. After all, a killer lurked the hallways doing the most wicked acts, which made her shiver right now and not with lust.

"Perhaps you're right unless…the less civilized among us kill each other…reducing the population of the town further."

"If so, then that itself will be art."

Alexis supposed so, having decided she really liked this bright young man and his philosophy of life. She knew she had found the perfect boyfriend for her wayward daughter. Lulu walked up to them carrying a plate of cookies that she likely had grabbed off of Robin.

"Would you like some?"

Franco took one and so did Alexis.

"Thank you sweet young lady."

Lulu looked at him reproachfully.

"I do not look at other men besides my Johnny Wonderful who's around here…somewhere."

Franco nodded, biting into his cookie.

"I see….well have you ever thought of rewarding his love for you with a work of art as a present?"

Lulu appeared to think about that.

"Well…sometimes…maybe…what do you mean?"

He smiled more broadly in a way that would make any woman melt.

"I could do your portrait and you could wrap it up and give it to him."

Lulu paused and then she nodded.

"That'd be swell…oh he'd really like that…when could we start?"

Franco finished his cookie first then brushed the crumbs away.

"Right now if you'd like…just follow me into my studio…"

Alexis watched as the sweet if dimwitted spawn of the even dimmer Laura and the not to be trusted Luke follow Franco. She'd have to watch this situation carefully, after all she had picked out the talented young artist for her own daughter not Laura's.

Yes, she'd definitely have to play close attention to what happened next.


	75. Chapter 75

Sonny searched for a boat to take his beloved Kate out of the hellhole of an evacuation center and to some place more civilized. He wanted the best for the love of his life, a mansion with plush furnishings, marbled bathrooms with spa fixtures and a gourmet chef.

None of this rustic living spent having to line up all day just to get a bowl of soup being ladled out by the mother of one of his children. Having to share a communal bathroom and not being able to shower for weeks on end. God, it smelled so rancid in that fetid building. Where were those who were supposed to rescue them from disaster?

The thought of seeing Kate have to wear the same clothes everyday or have to line up to use the washroom just drove Sonny crazy. What was the dignity in that? No, he decided even if he had to hock his cuff links to some fence, he was going to get a boat and take Kate and himself from this wretched place.

"Hey Boss…"

Sonny spun around quickly thinking he was under attack. You could never be too careful after all. But it was just Max dressed in what looked like a tight leather unitard with a spiked collar around his neck. Need he even ask what his top bodyguard had been doing lately?

"What is it Max?"

His bodyguard looked uneasy. Whether from the crazy getup or for some other reason, Sonny didn't know.

"Carly had to be put in restraints," Max said, "She pulled out Brenda's…extensions."

Damn, Sonny thought, her gold tipped braids with the silvery beads had cost him some major cash. But what was with Carly lately? Was she dipping too much into the liquor cabinet in the backroom of the building?

"Where's Brenda?"

Max sighed.

"Max had to put her in protective custody," he said, "Not to mention there's that killer roaming around."

Sonny nodded.

"That's why I wanted to get Kate out of here," he said, "I'm looking for a boat, any boat."

Max furrowed his brows.

"Boss…it's a dangerous world out there."

"It's a treacherous one in here…"

Max frowned.

"I know…and Mac's trying to find the killer but this one's keeping more than one step ahead of him."

Sonny scratched the back of his neck.

"What about Jason…shouldn't he be on top of it?"

"He's with…Sam," Max said, "I thought I saw them together not long ago."

Sonny started pacing, clearly agitated.

"His loyalties are conflicted," he said, "Jason belongs to me. I made him. I can break him under my boot heel if I have to do it."

Max sighed. He had heard this mantra so many times before and yet Jason still traveled his own path and yes that meant he associated with some obvious gold diggers like Sam. Sonny needed a real woman, one like Dianne. One who looked so damn sexy in leather and could crack a whip mightily.

"So what are you going to do boss?"

Sonny looked even testier.

"I'm going to track down a damn boat and whisk my beloved on out of here."

Max looked somber.

"I can't let you do that boss…Mac will sic a dragnet on your boat and he'll arrest you for dereliction."

"For what…?"

Max spoke more slowly.

"He'll throw you in jail for abandoning the evacuation site. PC is under martial law now and a major CDC quarantine for that killer virus going around not to mention the checkpoints for the two serial killers."

"Two of them…?"

Max nodded.

"Yes two of them," he said, "That's what Mac said in the last briefing."

Sonny slapped a hand to his face, oh how vitally important it was to leave this place at once, even if he had to swim through the fetid, murky waters with Kate riding on his back.

"Max…go track down a boat for me at once."

His bodyguard just stared at him.

"Boss…you don't get it," he said, "You take one step into that water and you will be arrested, that is if they don't decide to hang deserters instead."

Sonny's lower lip trembled.

"Is it really that bad?"

Max nodded.

"The mayor has decreed it so," he said, "You know he's been in a bad mood since someone iced his mistress."

Sonny reached for his wallet prepared to roll out some heavy cash but Max put up his hands.

"He can't be bribed at least not with money," Max said, "We need to find him another mistress then."

* * *

Alexis just hated her job. She had been ladling soup into bowls for months now. It felt like years sometimes and she had looked at her reflection in a cracked mirror this morning and started screaming. She had always prided herself on her stylish looks but the last few weeks hadn't been kind to her. What if Jerry slunk around again and saw her like she looked now? Oh god, he'd start sniffing around her daughter Sam again.

No, she couldn't, she wouldn't let it come down to that. She was still the most desirable woman in the building. After all, how many women could boast of having a child by Sonny who in his day admittedly years ago was quite the stud. Okay…one…maybe two…three anyone and those were just his known spawn. Okay then when you added his pitiful half brother Ric, then how many women had children by both of them?

Okay, now she was getting truly pathetic but she knew she had a vivacious sexiness to her that most women didn't. After all, hadn't the town's resident were-wolf Colman lusted after her a time or two? But then again, it wasn't like anyone had seen him around lately. Awesome because if he had been an ill-fated victim swallowed up by the flood waters then that would up her stock as a wanton woman considerably.

"Alexis…you slacking over there again."

That booming voice belonged to Alice of course. Oh god, who died and appointed her empress of the kitchen? And why was Eddy Q going along with it and not putting her back in her place? She flashed back to her own nightmarish days posing as a effeminate butler but only out of pure unselfishness to protect her child…which one she couldn't remember of course.

"No…no…these hungry varmints just finished off the last bowl."

Alice frowned at her and Alexis just knew she would feel the whip on her back again.

"Go into the kitchen and get more," she said, "Don't keep all these hungry people waiting or they'll turn on each other and mess up my clean floor."

Then Alice frowned.

"Speaking of which, where was that young man who was mopping it?"

Alexis shrugged.

"I don't know…wait I think he's helping Mac track down the serial killer who's still running around loose."

Alice waved a hand dismissively.

"Oh that…that's nothing…we've had plenty of killers at the Q mansion. This place is much tamer than a typical party."

True, Alexis thought having plenty of memories of horrendously violent and gory killings that took place where Alice worked. But that didn't help her here.

"Go get that soup now," Alice ordered, "I'll deal with that young man."

Alexis hoped that Alice would go easy on him. He had been so sweet and charming to her and to her wayward tramp of a daughter Sam. She sensed that he could get her back on the right path away to the one that led to doom and destruction if she remained with that thug Jason.

* * *

Sam looked over at Franco who was drafting another one of his murals on the wall. This one depicted a young girl walking down a dark hallway with a shadow with talons stalking her. That sent a shiver through Sam who thought it a bit creepy.

"Hey Sam…"

She tucked her hair back behind her ear again.

"What Jas?"

"Liz is going to need me for a while."

Her mouth turned into a pout.

"What for Jas?"

A line formed in the middle of his forehead.

"To donate blood," he said, "Pints of it because the blood bank's so low."

She looked disturbed.

"Jas you can't go and play with Liz," she said, "I need you here with me. We have to solve all these unsolved murders."

He looked at her conflicted.

"Sam…I promised Liz I'd donate my blood and then go out for coffee after."

Sam wrinkled her nose.

"Coffee…where? Jason, we're trapped in a building and we're all going to get picked off one by one if you and I don't find the killer."

"Sam…when I'm done with coffee…"

She wagged her finger.

"No Jas…you're always thinking about yourself," she said, "If you're too busy with Lollypop Liz to help me find the killer, I'll just ask Franco."

Now Jason's face went blank, this time due to confusion.

"Franco…who's he?"

She threw up her arms.

"Jas…where have you been…? He said I'm the muse for all his artistic expression. He made this most beautiful art with all these sparkly plastic cards and I was in the center of it."

Jason frowned.

"Sounds a bit weird."

Sam just sighed.

"Like you care Jas…he's a very nice guy, very charming and he pays a lot of attention to me," she said, "I think he likes me too."

Jason's jaw flexed.

"He's not the guy with the mop is he?"

She nodded her head.

"Isn't he talented?"

Jason put on his broody look the one he'd learned from his mentor.

"Sam, how do you know he's not the killer? How much do you know about him and where he came from?"

She put her hands on her hips.

"He's not the killer Jas," she said, "If he were so evil, so diabolical. I would know it in my gut. I have great instincts."

Jason just looked perplexed.

"Sam this isn't about instincts, this is about a killer."

She looked at him impatient.

"I know that Jas but he's just been so sweet to me," she said, "and this is the craziest part, my mom introduced us."

Jason's mouth became a straight line.

"Then you know that this guy's got to be a killer Sam," he said, "Because of what your mother has done."

Sam's body froze.

"Now wait a minute Jas, I know Alexis isn't perfect but she's right about Franco. He really is a nice guy."

Jason started pacing.

"Your mother constantly blasts me as a violent killer yet every time she gets near a kitchen knife, someone winds up dead on the floor or conveniently falls out of a building…"

"Accidents Jason, or self defense."

"Sure….and if that fails she can always dig up one of her wigs and claim split personality," he said, "She even pretended she was a man!"

Sam looked at him confused. She just never knew he had it so in for her mother. God Alexis could be a pain in the ass most of the time but he was wrong about her view about the talented young artist. Terribly wrong and she would show him.

She would show them all.

"Jas, she was just a…little confused."

Suddenly Liz came running in the room, her mask still on her face.

"I have to tell you something."

Jason and Sam looked up at her.

"What is it?"

Sam listened to Jason's question and thought, god what a drama queen. But Liz's face turned grave.

"There's been a breach in the quarantine barrier," Liz said, "The deadly mysterious virus might have escaped."


	76. Chapter 76

Kristina looked at the couple kissing by the waterfront and wanted to throw up. Whoever would have thought that Tracy would have been caught doing some down and dirty tongue action with…was that Mac?

No, it couldn't be. They hadn't even known each other not according to the history recorded on the bathroom stall walls at PC High. They didn't even appear to spend much time talking to each other back in the PC she had left. In fact, she didn't even think Mac knew how to do that kind of kissing. She'd seen him peck her mother on the lips in greeting and departure but this Mac who wore curly dark hair and was that a diamond stud in his ear was really grinding his mouth into Tracy's. Oh god, Kristina's stomach roiled at the sight.

"Oh god, they are at it again."

Kristina looked up to see Amy standing next to her all of a sudden. She looked less bright than usual, almost subdued.

"You mean they're a couple?"

Amy nodded, and then looked confused.

"Well…yeah kind of," she said, "When I do my newsletter, you know so that everyone knows what's really happening in PC, I put out this newsletter."

Kristina had remembered it that Amy had been the town gossip until she had disappeared by the catacombs one night. While the vampire population had still been in residence. There had been talk about dedicating a statue to her at the hospital but it died quickly, not everyone had appreciated Amy's facile communication skills.

"So how did they get together?"

Amy tilted her face, thinking.

"Well…it was about the time that Tracy had been all into Luke and his motorcycle…but then Luke seduced Laura one night at the disco and she ended up like Scottie, on the sidelines to PC's greatest romance."

Kristina remembered it somewhat differently but she didn't contest Amy's version. Luke, Tracy and Mac in some sordid triangle…not to mention that Mac looked kind of almost hot in those tight black leather pants and that tank top showing off his rippling muscles and the tattoo.

But the diamond stud in his ear sparkled even as the couple deepened their kiss.

"She liked Coleman too but he's been heavily into his whole ROTC trip. He's going to fight in the war and he might never return."

Kristina knew he would come back to rumors that he was half werewolf underneath all that shagginess, attracting women to him like a cosmic magnet. After all, her own mother had dressed up in some silly lingerie along with Dianne to play pool with him and it wound up on the evening news when Mac sent his vice squad to bust the joint.

Kristina's life had descended into madness the next day in school when classmates, most of which were dead now had teased her about it. Yes, Buffy, Tiffany, Muffin and Amber and a host of others were all on the latest serial killer's list of death, all of them with their eyes gouged out as if death hadn't been enough to render them permanently sightless.

It seemed odd that the girls who had teased her about her mom's scandalous exploits had wound up dead on the wrong end of a killer…but it had to be a coincidence.

Yes most definitely. Amy sidled up even closer to her while they both watched Mac mash with Tracy and Kristina thought if her mother ever caught wind of this chapter of PC's history, she'd probably go back to dressing up like an effeminate man fooling no one but herself.

Finally Amy got bored.

"Enough of this…they'll be at it for the next hour or so," she said, "Let's go to Rosie's for a malt…"

Kristina was getting tired of malts. That would be descending too deeply into Lulu territory which would be scary. But she just shrugged and went with Amy back to the diner and away from a sight which would remain seared inside her eyelids forever.

Her mother must never know the truth.

* * *

Alexis sighed as she looked at Sami talking to Franco again. Lulu had joined them and Alexis wanted to take a baseball bat and knock Lulu out of the running. She had introduced Sam with the talented young artist in hopes of getting her to forget about that thug Jason. Had it worked? Well, Sami and Franco appeared to be hitting it off…once she had served as the muse and then the prop for one of his latest artworks.

"Hey Alexis…you got anymore soup?"

Alexis turned around to see a haggard looking Liz dressed in faded scrubs that had obviously been drenched in blood. She felt repulsed wanting to push Liz away from her but she couldn't do that or her application for sainthood would be revoked. Not that she'd ever come close to that but she needed to improve her reputation in order to impress the jury enough to acquit her at her murder trial…even Eddy Q who still hated her with a passion for some reason.

"What's going on Liz?"

Liz sighed after Alexis handed her a bowl of soup which she suckled down greedily as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. She probably hadn't because she'd been so busy performing delicate surgeries with rudimentary tools.

"The virus has escaped for sure…and I don't know who will be the next to fall ill."

Alexis felt like slapping her because at that moment she had to slap someone and Sam was out of range. But if the virus had spread beyond the perimeters of the quarantine then they were all doomed. No one would get out of this flood alive. If they survived the flood, then any rescuers would be forced to shoot them dead on site or nuke what was left of PC with some nuclear bomb to incinerate the deadly virus before it could infect the planet.

Or at least some more upscale place than where they lived.

"Liz what are you going to do?"

"Me…why do I have to do anything Alexis…I've been busy saving lives since this all began."

Alexis sighed sensing a meltdown from Liz and not wanting to be in the vicinity.

"Liz…you have to hold it all together because if we all get infected, we are all going to die and if you're the one who let it out…"

The nurse turned doctor threw her hands up in the air.

"You think I did it on purpose? It was an accident. God, I took one short nap for about 20 seconds. I was so sleep deprived; I was falling asleep on my patient. I woke up with my face deep in his belly next to his pancreas."

Alexis recoiled not caring to know the details.

"Then you should have hit Spinelli up for some of his magic little uppers…not that I take them of course."

Liz just stared at Alexis as if one of them were crazy.

"Alexis…he's patient zero and he's nearly dead by the way," she said, "as for his side trade of selling happy grass and happier pills, I know nothing about it."

Alexis folded her arms.

"And you think I do…well I don't beyond taking some happy grass…strictly for medicinal purposes."

Liz just slammed the bowl on the table hard enough to crack it.

"Enough…I've had it with you ungrateful, selfish, self-centered people," she said, "I'm going outside and I'm not sure I'm coming back."

Alexis looked at the bony thin girl with the peaked face and thought, she just needed some action. Where was Lucky when you needed him? Probably off doing drugs somewhere when he should be helping Mac solve the serial murders. But then Lucky had become such a bad seed in the past year or so.

Liz just started walking out the door and no one can stop me."

So she did that and she almost made it to the point where she'd twist the knob on the door when she heard the ratcheting of a shotgun.

She looked behind her and saw Alice, shot gun in hand about to blow her head off if she twisted the knob.

* * *

It was going to be like something out of _Lord of the Flies_ with a bit of PC's own brand of insanity thrown in, that Mac could tell when he saw the latest clues left behind by the killer. But it wasn't just that young nameless women were getting killed and their eyes ripped out of their sockets, people who weren't being killed were starting to get crazy. He'd had to break up fights, stop assassination plots and break up an illegal craps game.

No time for him to stop and rest, to phone the WSB and tell them to get some of their agents here pronto. They needed someone to ensure that more lives wouldn't be snuffed out before the flood waters receded.

What would they do when they ran out of food, water and when the generators ran dry leaving them in the dark?

People would begin to die and kill each other in earnest and then Mac would be overwhelmed with trying futilely to keep the peace. He looked over and saw Felicia smoking what looked suspiciously like happy grass. He was about to go and snatch it out of her hand and then cuff her up but then decided not to do so. If people knew she had the grass, it might start a riot and then he'd really be in trouble.

God, were they ever going to be rescued or were they going to have to decide at some point to save themselves? Life had been so much simpler when he'd been growing up in PC than it had been when he'd had to serve as the commissioner.

Then he heard a noise and looked up and suspended from the ceiling but hugging it closely was a man tied to a rappelling rope. Dressed in black with grayish blond hair in curls and hooped earrings…it had to be..it couldn't be anyone else but Luke returning back in town from one of his out of town escapades.

Luke obviously didn't want to be told on so Mac kept his silence. He wasn't sure whether or not Luke's arrival would help save the town or ensure its final destruction. Because Mac was beginning to suspect a few things and one of them was that this flood had been no act of God or nature.

It was an act of a man, with a very evil mind and a diabolical plot to destroy the town and its people. But who could that be?

That Mac had to figure out himself and he was running out of time.


	77. Chapter 77

Alexis was not accustomed to being in charge but what was a woman of her background to do? If he didn't do something, she was going to be in serious trouble. After the flood waters had finally receded and the danger had subsided, she would be going on trial for murder.

This time for actually killing someone…not because she would serve again as the convenient scapegoat for all the town's deviants…to exploit and frame for their own nefarious crimes… The only alternative was to slip away quietly with one of the bad boys on her roster but none of them were in sight.

Jerry had slithered away back into the darkness that had spawned him only moments earlier. Sonny had gone to either console his latest squeeze Kate or to in an act of mercy, drown her in the flood waters. Coleman, where the hell was he? No one had seen him since the flood waters tore through the town after the dam broke.

Luke, well he had just shown up unfashionably late to yet another disaster but then he followed his own set of rules utterly lacking inside him any form of moral compass. Ned wasn't bad at all but he did sport an earring and a tattoo on his arm that she hadn't remembered seeing before. Eddy Q, was too old to get into any serious trouble even as he followed Skye around like a puppy dog.

That left…oh no, not dear sweet, sweet yet completely clueless Mac. But wait, was that Felicia cozying up to him over there, plying him with brownies that came from Robin's oven? And with Felicia these would not be ordinary brownies.

No, the waif turned wandering aging flower child Felicia was out to seduce Mac away from her! Alexis glanced over at her oldest daughter Sami who was making goo gooey eyes at Franco who had started painting flowers on her nubile body.

Liz had disappeared but since no one had heard any screaming in the past half hour that probably meant she was still alive somewhere and sneaking some of Spinelli's happy grass. The poor guy, Alexis thought, he had helped her through her bout with illness and now he was lying perhaps dying in the quarantine zone somewhere. Hopefully stashed there before he infected what was left of PC's population with some god awful plague.

When Alexis had first heard that horrible word uttered by Liz, she ran through her head the inventory of every member of her family living and deceased or incarcerated to see if any of them could be engaging in some diabolical plot. But she came up empty.

No, it had to be from some other family tree not her own poisoned bloodlines this time.

"Hey Alexis…"

She looked up and saw Max. What was he doing here? She thought he'd be trying to patch things up with Diane.

"What is it Max…?"

"You're looking very fetching today."

She nearly blushed but she wondered if he was toying with her. After all, had he ever noticed her beauty before? No…he had always been chained or tied to Diane's bed or trussed up in some bizarre costume.

"Thank you Max…I thought you'd be with Diane."

Max sighed.

"She won't forgive me for what she thinks I've done…but I never cheated on her. Honest."

Alexis sighed, as if she cared about other people's relationship problems. My god, when were people going to start worrying about hers? She hadn't had a date in nearly a year unless you counted about a hundred cups of lattes with Mac. Which she didn't because it's not like they even touched each other, or kissed except a friendly peck on the cheek…what was the matter with him anyway? Was he gay and if so when did this happen? No wait…he couldn't be because Felicia had her lips wrapped around an earlobe while she plied a brownie against his lips.

The unrepentant hussy….the tramp with tacky clothing and what were those things holding up her hair? She looked like a mess.

"I didn't cheat on her Alice…"

She looked at him funny.

"Alexis…not Alice…god can't anyone ever get anything right?"

Max just looked at her puzzled and she just rolled her eyes. That's when she knew she had to take charge. That and having to tell someone to rip Brenda's claws out of Carly's fluffy hairdo again…she felt she needed some order.

"Max forget Diane…unless you can find her whip and chains," she said, "I need to step up and save the day."

He arched his brows.

"You Alexis?"

She stared him down.

"Yes me…and don't you dare…stop laughing right now…"

Max turned serious.

"I'm not laughing….I'm sad about Diane not speaking to me."

She just threw up her arms.

"Fine…I'll go find someone else to help me…someone with less baggage…"

She looked over at Lulu who fawned over Johnny Wonderful who Alexis had seen slither off with no less than a dozen other women since this crisis began. Then she walked past them and kept looking for some allies.

* * *

Liz stepped outside and at first she didn't see the woman with the shot gun. But then she did and her eyes widened.

"Alice…?"

The woman's eyes turned all crazy on her.

"Heather…you aren't getting away with it this time…"

Liz turned steely eyed as she did in a crisis and held up one hand.

"I'm not Heather…I'm Liz…I'm her…how are we related again?"

Alice cocked the shotgun at Liz.

"You're trying to trick me Heather. Well, you're not going to get away with it."

Liz just counted off the fingers on one hand.

"Is she my aunt…my cousin…my third cousin twice removed…my half sister with a double twist…"

Alice just pressed the trigger almost enough to fire the gun.

"No wait…she's my cousin's wife's sister in law's missing daughter…right?"

"I'm going to shoot you Heather if you don't shut the hell up right now…"

Liz zipped her lip wondering what to do. She looked around furtively but didn't see anything handy to craft into a weapon or a means of deflecting a weapon. What would she do now?

Alice looked at her through the barrel of the gun…and then lowered it.

"No…you're way too skinny to be Heather," she said, "and Heather's much prettier."

Liz sighed looking down at her weather beaten hands that had sewn so many bodies back together agin.

"I try my best," she said, "but it's been a long year."

Alice put the gun down.

"I've been looking for Heather for a year…and she's nowhere to be found…"

Liz tried to be helpful.

"Well we just had a flood."

"Yeah I can see that…well if you can't help me I should just find Jeff Webber."

Liz's eyes widened.

"My father…so that must mean…oh god…"

Alice frowned at her.

"Don't freak about it," she said, "He had a whole life before he married that tramp that gave him two spoiled brat daughters."

Liz hardened her lips.

"Hey…I'm not spoiled…and Heather's off her rocker. Everyone knows that. I read the bathroom walls at PC High too."

Alice folded her arms.

"She's not crazy…she's brilliant. She could have been the best nurse in all of PC's history…better than you."

Liz put her hands on her hips.

"Says who…I just saved a zillion lives and no one's even thanked me."

"Heather's a saint who doesn't need to be validated through being thanked."

Liz rolled her eyes again.

"Maybe that's why she's crazy."

Alice sighed.

"They think she's that diabolical serial killer, well the latest one and I know she's innocent."

"How do you know that?"

Alice smiled.

"Because she's not one to pluck people's eyeballs out," Alice said, "She rips out their tongues."

* * *

Lulu kissed Johnny Wonderful one thousand times.

"Oh you're the most wonderful…"

He smiled widely at her.

"I'm Johnny Wonderful yes."

She beamed back at him.

"Yes…and all those times you left me in this crisis, it was to help save lives."

His smile dimmed a little but he nodded.

"Yes…yes it was…and I did save lives."

"How many…?"

He thought about it.

"Oh about a hundred or more…"

She jumped up and down clapping her hands.

"Oh I knew it, you really are Johnny Wonderful…"

Then a voice piped up behind her.

"Oh no he's not…he's Johnny Gigolo."

Lulu looked at the other woman in shock.

"Who the hell are you to be talking smack about the man I love?"

Lois stepped forward smacking gum and unsheathing her claws.

"I'm the Brooklyn Bitch…here to get my man," she said, "and don't worry it's not Johnny…I'm just here to tell you he's a hustler who'll screw a woman for money."

Johnny cleared his throat.

"I think you have me confused with someone else Lois."

She stood up taller, aided greatly by six inch stiletto heels.

"Oh no I don't…you've got a tattoo of a leprechaun on your ass."

Lulu's eyes widened.

"How did you know that," she said, "Oh Johnny is what she said the truth?"

Lois nodded.

"You'd better believe it bimbo princess," she said, "and you're just his latest."

Tears began shimmering down Lulu's pinched face as her curls bobbed up and down and her poodle skirt caught the droplets.

No, no this couldn't be true, it just couldn't and if it was, what would she do next?


	78. Chapter 78

Lulu burst into tears upon Lois' revelation about Jonny Wonderful and how her dearest had betrayed her with other women since the flood.

"Oh it can't be true…"

Lois watched the younger girl as like mother, like daughter she started to slip into a catatonic state. Only it was a bit hard to arrange to ship her off in a straitjacket to Sunnybrook Mental Institution while the streets were flooded. So she slapped her on the face instead.

"Get a grip girl," she said, "Spoiled little princesses like yourself have no business whining about not being able to hold onto gigolos like him."

Lulu pouted.

"He's…He's not a gigolo…he's…wonderful."

Lois waved her manicured hand.

"Yeah whatever…now has anyone seen my daughter Brookie? I'm up for an award for mother of the year back in the 'hood and I need to find her."

Lulu shrugged.

"Haven't seen her in days," she said, "Are you sure she's here?"

Lois pulled out a piece of chewing gum, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth.

"No I'm not," she said, "I've been trying to talk some sense into Nedsy."

"Oh you mean Ned…"

Lois snapped her gum.

"No I mean my ex who should be paying more attention to our daughter," she said, "Where is he anyway?"

"I think he's helping Robin in the kitchen with the baking."

Lois sighed.

"My Nedsy, he's always had a thing for the young girls."

She wandered off and Lulu just looked where she saw Liz dressed in her soiled scrubs not getting killed. She had heard about the screaming but the skinny woman who seemed to be fading further away was back in business saving lives. She'd picked up a turkey baster and was using it to clean out a gaping wound in the chest of some unnamed person.

"I'll need some more dental floss for sutures…stat…that means yesterday…"

Lulu watched as Maxie went to find some in the kitchen. She started walking and collided with the man who had been an artist a couple days ago but Franco had been kanoodling with that skank, Sam in the corner. The man had no taste. Everyone knew Sam was an opportunistic, gold digging tramp.

"Hi…you're kind of cute."

Franco looked at her.

"So are you…you got a moment?"

She just looked at him.

"You are talking to me…?"

His smile broadened.

"Of course my lovely...you are the only one here."

She looked around.

"What about Sam?"

He shrugged.

"She's tied up."

Lulu wondered what he meant by that. But then she saw a bunch of people standing in the corner.

"Who the hell are they?"

Franco gazed at the group of misfits.

"Oh that's John McBain, he's the enemy Sonny never knew he had, that's Tea, some woman whose caught between two men no one's even heard of and…that's Todd, he's with some chick named Blair and well, their daughter, the dear little Starr is lying dead and eyeless in the pantry as we speak."

"Sounds like a bunch of losers."

"I agree…there's a reason Llandview fell into an erupting volcano."

She looked confused.

"Llandview, never heard of it," she said, "but there's enough refugees here without outsiders."

Franco laughed.

"We have measures to take care of that in our midst."

Lulu frowned.

"Oh I don't mean they should die or anything drastic like that," she said, "It's just getting crowded in here."

Franco clasped his hands together in glee.

"Oh I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

* * *

Sam just looked over at Franco hanging around that simple blond troll-up. She looked over at her mom Alexis trying to lead everyone while that tramp Felicia went after her man. She'd never be like Alexis. She'd fight tooth and nail for her man…especially while he was still rolling in plastic. Ric slithered over to her.

"Hi Sam…"

"Hi loser…"

He chuckled.

"Still have fond memories of our little romp on the carpet…"

She just rolled her eyes at him.

"Alexis had to bleach the rug twice and then she just burned it."

Ric's smile dimmed.

"Well your mother always did take things to the extreme…that's why I left her."

Sam shoved her hands into her sagging pockets.

"She left you…after what you did to me."

Ric held up a hand in protest.

"Wait a minute…you wanted it…you wanted me and you got both…and I was damn good."

She rolled her eyes again.

"Jason is livelier than you are," she said, "I can tell how excited he gets when he blinks his yes."

That sobered up Ric somewhat. There were always men in the world he couldn't compete with, first his older brother who had overshadowed him all his life and now Jason. When was he going to be at the top of the food chain?

"Ric get lost," Sam said, "My mother sees you, she'll castrate you…plenty of tools in the kitchen."

Ric blanched and slithered off again.

Alexis wondered if that louse of her ex husband was really standing across the room trying to hit on her trampy daughter again. But figured that they both deserved each other after the horrible pain they had caused through their betrayal. What was a mother's worst nightmare? Losing her child? No, coming into one's house and seeing one's daughter rolling on the floor with your husband, arms and legs wrapped around one another.

Alexis couldn't eat for weeks and it had nothing to do with the terminal illness that afflicted her. No, it was from having to witness such a horrible sight in her own house. Jerry and his incredible skills in the sack, his bad boy attitude and his borderline psychosis had put the spark back in her eyes again. He had been just what she needed.

Now she saw Mac sipping coffee brought to him by that bitch of an ex who kept running off on him to jump in the sack with her ex, Frisco. They'd get together, turn on the heat, and nine months later, another child would be born under a piece of furniture. Did Felicia even give a damn that her daughter, the saintly Georgia had been murdered in cold blood? Alexis had always wished she had a daughter just like her rather than one who seduced all of her mother's men and maxed her credit cards but Felicia just didn't seem to care about her youngest.

She probably forgot that she had an older daughter named Maxie who had strung along the dear sweet gentle soul who had sold Alexis happy grass when she needed it.

"Mama, can I have some money?"

Alexis just stared at Sam who had sidled up to her suddenly.

"No you can't…you've got to stop sponging off of me or god help me, I will push you into the flood."

Sam just stared at her.

"Why would you do that," she said, "You said you loved me when I came back."

Alexis vaguely remembered that but what else was she supposed to say? Her precious Kristina needed a transplant to save her life and Sam's baby by Sonny would be the only possible candidate. Short Alexis getting drunk and falling back into the tacky couch with Sonny and conceiving an organ donor…she couldn't imagine doing that.

Sonny's harem was complicated enough already. Both Brenda and Carly had been chained up in separate rooms so they couldn't rip each other's throats out. Liz said it might have been some exotic germ they contracted from the flood waters that attacked the rage center of the brain but Alexis thought both women were just pathetic that way. They'd succumbed to that magic yet horribly evil pheromone that existed inside Sonny that made women prostrate themselves before him, and get pregnant in the blink of an eye.

"I love you enough to say no to you Sam," Alexis said, "Now go get a job."

Sam put her hands on her hips.

"I don't need a job, Franco loves me and he's got plenty of plastic."

Alexis couldn't complain about Franco because she set them up but she wished her daughter would just go away and leave her alone.

It might be evil to say this but she wished she'd walk down a dark hallway and run into the eye gouging serial killer.

* * *

Eddy Q nibbled on some stale pizza.

"Not bad…but soon we'll be out again."

Skye looked at him.

"Oh Eddy you take such good care of me."

Eddy scowled.

"I wish you'd remember that when you ran off with that mobster."

She smiled.

"He's gone now and I've seen the light," she said, "I'm supposedly really in love with some guy named Todd. Who's Todd?"

Eddy shrugged and threw the crust of his pizza on the ground.

"I need some more food…really Alice was much less domineering when she worked in my kitchen. And who gave her the whip?"

"I don't know," Skye said sounding bored," but I need to find me a man…I've been wanting it before we got here."

Eddy frowned.

"Find yourself a good man who can take care of you…and stay away from Sonny."

She yawned.

"Oh I've had my fill of mobsters."

* * *

Heather lurked outside, her hair gone all crazy. She watched Liz working on patients from the outside looking inside. She wanted not only to be just like her, she wanted to be her. She couldn't believe she was Jeff's child.

But she had a plan; she had the masking tape, the cloth, the chloroform, the keys to the cottage in the back. She was about ready to make her move…

Then she saw a darkening shadow moving closer to Liz…


	79. Chapter 79

The building shook powerfully as those inside it waited for the tremor to pass.

"What was that," Lulu said, fluffing her hair back.

Johnny Wonderful who was zipping his pants back after running into her in the hallway didn't seem to know.

"I haven't a clue baby…"

After it passed, she eyed him suspiciously.

"What were you doing here?"

He just widened his eyes.

"Looking for you baby doll, what else?"

She smiled again because all was right except for what had just rocked the building. Other people came into the hallway including Mac who looked harried.

"Thank god it's over."

Lulu blinked her eyes at him.

"What was that Mac?"

He sighed.

"It was an earthquake," he said, "Just what we needed. The next one could be much more powerful if that was just a foreshock."

Lulu looked terrified.

"Oh my god, then we could all die for real this time."

Mac nodded soberly.

"Yes we all could and I'm no closer to tracking down this notorious serial killer," he said, "I think this killer's the worst the town has ever faced."

Lulu looked like she were about to cry.

"Oh Johnny Wonderful…hold me."

She snuggled against him and he slowly put his arm around her.

"Sure baby…whatever…"

"I mean if we're all going to die," she said, "Maybe we need to find some place to be alone…"

"But baby doll…"

Truth was Johnny Wonderful was beginning to feel more than a little exhausted with all these PC ladies coming to him for comfort. Not that he didn't enjoy it but a stud like him had to have his rest too. Who knows, the rate he was going, he could become PC's hottest stud. Sonny was winding down, having reduced his harem to three women and Luke, well he dropped by now and then.

Lulu gripped his shirt.

"I need you Johnny Wonderful…God; I need you…right here and right now."

He looked doubtful and Mac just coughed discreetly.

"I guess I'll be heading on out to search for the killer," he said, "And check for damage from this earthquake."

Lulu and Johnny Wonderful watched him go and then they looked deeply into each other's eyes as the spotlight focused on them after illuminating the darkness around them. Then she started to warble.

"I…I…will always love….you….oh yeah….I will always…love you…."

She started singing and he just looked at her puzzled for a moment.

"What's with you?"

"I will…I will….always looooooooooooove you…."

Then the chorus of men came out of nowhere to start dancing furiously around her and Johnny Wonderful felt more than a little bit upstaged.

* * *

John McBain, Tea, Blair and all these denizens Alexis didn't recognize had wandered into her soup line. The nerve of them, why had these outsiders insisted on taking shelter in their emergency shelter…? Alexis felt some sympathy that their own town had been blown off the map by a huge cyclone but she just wanted to show all of them the door. Put them back in their own canoes, row boats and yachts by gunpoint if necessary. But Robin bringing out another vat of her special soup just said that they had to feed and clothe the masses.

But Alexis didn't think that made any sense. The natives were getting restless as it were and she was afraid that civil war would break out between those who lived in PC and those who wandered into what was left of it for charity.

"Stop that," Alexis said waving her ladle as another imported ingrate worked his way through her line. Mac was just going to have to come out here and arrest all these upstarts. Where was Mac anyway? She had some hungers that didn't involve soup that needed to be filled. And she hadn't seen Jerry in a while.

Blair waved a manicured talon in her face. This witch with her big hair and snotty attitude would put Brenda to shame with the nails she wore on her hands.

"What did you just say to me you old hag?"

Alexis stared at her, what had this witch just called her?

"You already had a bowl of soup," she said, "It's time for you and your kind to head back where you came from."

Blair's upper lip curled into a sneer.

"It got blown up by the cyclone…which was probably artificially engineered by one of the degenerates in your family tree."

Alexis' jaw dropped.

"You brazen hussy…as if you're one to talk about family trees," she said, "By the way your poor daughter is lying dead in the freezer until the coroner arrives."

Blair didn't look moved. She just shrugged.

"She was turning into such a little tramp," she said, "I tried my best to raise her right but she's her father's daughter."

The line began to congregate again behind Blair who refused to move.

"Now if you could just get out of line and let the others get some food…before I go all Cassadine on you…"

Blair just rolled her eyes but she backed away.

"I'll go see if I can get some of that fresh bread in the kitchen."

Alexis just watched her go, and thought whatever. If Robin wanted to be all sweetness and light to people leaving Alexis to play the villainess, then that just went to show how unfair life was for her.

* * *

Mac wasn't near the food line. He was investigating the serial killings in diligent fashion. His men were dusting for prints and were taking photographs of anything that looked like it might be evidence. Felicia had changed her clothes ditching the wild flower child dress to put on duds more appropriate for investigating crimes. Mac needed her help even if he never realized it, not until it was too late. Besides she had some time to kill before wanderlust kicked in and she had to hit the road again.

"Oh Mac…you make me so hot the way you oversee the investigation," she cooed into his ear.

All of a sudden, Felicia had decided that her ex was desirable again and that she had to have him. So she'd snuggled up close but he didn't seem to notice. So focused was Mac in his work and solving these heinous crimes.

"Your body against mine…oh Mac," she said, "Surely you feel it too…that we've been apart for way too long."

He cleared his throat.

"Excuse me Felicia…you're standing on the blood splatter."

Her face recoiled as she stepped backward, nearly falling onto the floor. But she caught herself, why hadn't Mac done that for her?

"I need it so much and you got to give it to me."

Mac looked pained.

"Felicia…not right now…maybe later."

She sidled off, a pout on her face. When had Mac turned into a sourpuss? He hadn't always been this way had he?

"You sure…?"

He nodded and then she knew he was too busy for her. Well she'd show him, she'd show all of them as she stomped off.

* * *

Luke looked down from where he had hidden in the rafters. He had snuck in the building not wanting to announce his return. People had a way of hassling you about all kinds of things real and imagined when you resurfaced after some time away.

He had seen the yacht moored outside and knew that Eddy Q and his family had arrived including Tracy who had been drafted to scrub the floors in the kitchen. He smiled when he'd seen her dressed in an apron and holding both a rag and some heavy duty cleanser. It would take much more than that to clean up this town. He had hoped the reforms he'd meant to institute as mayor would have taken root but he had just been so…distracted during that time.

Maybe the mobs outside his mansion with pitchforks and lit torches had something to do with it. Seriously, he'd wanted to quit after the squads had shown up to rid the town of its nightlife, meaning its undead. But Luke had gotten a good showing from the catacombs crowd when it came to winning office.

But he was a wizened old man now, his famed afro now mostly gone and his wardrobe, still seriously challenged.

"Luke is that you?"

He looked down and saw Alexis, or who he called Natasha standing there peering up at him.

"Natasha…the one and only…"

She flashed him a brief look of irritation. If anyone else had called her that, they'd be dead in a split second, he knew but he meant it as an endearment and also to remind her of her familial roots.

"Get down here before you fall."

Luke wasn't as nimble as he used to be back in the day when he'd owned the disco but he managed to leap from one beam to the next without slipping.

"Luke…you're crazy."

"This coming from someone who had a split personality or two…"

Alexis gritted her teeth.

"You know I faked it," she said, "I faked being a man once too…but I'll do anything for my girls."

Luke knit his brow.

"Where are they anyway?"

Alexis paused, biting her lip. She hadn't a clue but it's not like she hadn't been seriously busy for the last few weeks. They'd turn up at some point, they always did.

"I see Sami over there," Luke said, "She's got a new boyfriend I see…"

Alexis looked over to where Sami was sliding her hands all over Franco.

"Yes…much better than that thug Jason…"

Luke shrugged.

"But your other two, the lovely Kristina and sweet Molly where are they?"

Alexis hadn't any idea of course but why share that with him? He'd just mock her and she'd had enough of that today. Luke's face darkened suddenly…his eyes glittering.

"I see darkness around one…and a fogbank surrounding the other…"

Alexis frowned, as if that told her anything.

"Luke what the hell are you talking about?"

Luke's face grew grimmer.

"There is terrible danger coming to PC…even greater than what we've seen so far…"

Then he fainted dead away, striking the floor below with a creepy thud that resonated more than had the earthquake.


	80. Chapter 80

Congratulations Nancy Lee Grahn on that Emmy win for Best Supporting Actress. While Alexis vexes me to no end, her portrayer has not only done some great acting work, but she rocks in other ways as well.

* * *

Kristina sipped on her root beer float at Rosie's Diner wondering where the hell Faith had gone. The witch had played her like an impressionable fool and then dumped her in some twisted time warp which had to be a nightmare.

PC could have never been this pathetic town which made the wreck she had just left seem cooler. Sure, life in the retro version had its moments. She hung out with some semi cool people at the disco but Luke and Laura, what a pair of poorly dressed losers. If Faith had stuck around longer, she could have helped them buy new threads so they wouldn't look so wishy washy. How on earth had Luke ever done any of those amazing and heroic deeds that filled both bathroom walls at PC High if he were acting like some cracked out dude panting over some chipmunk cheeked blonde who had a few skeletons in her attic.

Not to mention she was a decade or so from being a candidate for a lobotomy at Shady Pines where her dippy daughter, that crazy Lulu would soon share a padded cell with her.

"Would you like a refill?"

Rosie just looked at her, wrapped in her robe and with her hair in curls. She'd married a man much older than her but it was his son, Joe that she secretly craved. Only this morning, she'd been fiddling to slip the batteries in her love stick in tune to one of the songs he'd crooned in the shower that morning. It was so hip to talk about her deeply buried lust for her stepson in her Consciousness Awareness Groups. Until she learned that both Leslie and Monica were in her group. One loose pair of lips from one of them about the amorous proclivities of one Webber brother and the two were rolling on the floor pulling each other's roots down to their extensions out.

Rosie the peacemaker could do little to break them up and Gail Baldwin pulled out a hypodermic to fill it with some happy serum to restore order in the rap group.

Kristina had missed that whole sorry episode but heard about it while checking out the boutiques on the main strip. Claudia and Brian that perpetually smiling and very lovey dovey couple who never changed their outfits were planning at long last to tie the knot. Amy who was vying for the role of her bestest maid of honor breathlessly told everyone within hearing distance that rumors about Claudia having a bun in the oven were so not true.

Amy, Amy, Kristina thought, then she remembered the blabbermouth who had served as the main lines of communications when the tornado to end all tornados tore out the phone lines some time back. Of course the way she twisted the words that one person meant to say to another led to two homicides, six brawls and three paternity tests being done on babies. But at the end of the crisis, one of the town's nameless mayors had given her some sort of medal.

It still hung on the mantle at the nurse's station at GH because no one could quite recall what happened to the perky nurse with a nose for scandalous news. Not to mention a commitment to keeping the populace informed that made her a legend.

Kristina sipped her float remembering how the history books used to teach the students at PC High about the local history and all its flavors must have just gotten everything wrong. Because what she'd learned in the classroom and those special assemblies just didn't match what she had witnessed since her arrival.

"Hey Kristina, you going to the big party…?"

She looked up and saw Anne Logan the nurse wearing the huge chastity belt that Jeff Weber had tried to pick the lock a time or two.

"I don't know…it sounds like a drag."

Anne's face lit up.

"Oh no, it's going to be exciting," she said, "We're going to play Spin the Bottle and someone will spike the punch with communal wine."

Oh yeah, Anne had once flirted with being a nun. But Kristina thought about it, she might reconsider if it would give her insight as to why Luke and Laura were such pathetic drips and which Webber had really been responsible for dropping Lollypop Liz on humanity.

So she left the rest of her float and followed Annie, not knowing that behind her a shadow lurked in the form of a Cassadine.

* * *

Alexis wanted to scream. No, she didn't know where her two youngest daughters were at the moment but they'd turn up. Then she'd tell them about the hardships that their convenient disappearances had nearly broken her. Why did people have to be so damn selfish, she asked herself…after all she had raised her girls to be much better than the hideous brats spawned by other families in this town. Sam had rejected the guidance that her mother had so considerately given and became the town's latest tramp, though Alexis had hopes that the nice gentleman Franco would change that.

Molly had popped up now and then but Alexis never worried about her darling little angel who wore a benevolent smile on her face. She wondered idly how this latest rash of murders had impacted her daughter's psyche but then figured she worried for nothing. Still it showed that she was the best of all mothers who sacrificed everything for her girls' happiness and their very lives.

Here she'd been slaving away at the food table doling out endless bowls of soup to ingrates off the streets of PC and now that ghetto, Llandview for weeks now. No one had presented her the medal she so richly deserved and few had even thanked her for her tremendous sacrifices. That skanky Blair what's her name with her hoity toity airs though she had melted to the floor like the Wicked Witch of the West when news broke that her daughter, the bratty Starr had been murdered, her eyes ripped clear out of her sockets. Blair writhed on the ground in hysterics as people stepped over her and this dude named John McBain just looked too damn scruffy to have been Sonny's…no wait was it Jason's BFF? God, she couldn't keep the storylines of all these interlopers straight anymore, she just knew she'd never slept with any of them.

None of them sired any of her children…unless one of them turned out to be Sami's real father who could be just about anyone after all. Damn, she should have really gotten that DNA test done on her eldest but them that would have spoiled everything. No, she figured she'd find out the truth the moment it would most devastate her.

Robin smiled at her but in the light, her eyes looked red. The poor girl had been working too hard serving others and keeping them fed while her no good husband had been marking time with every short skirted girl in the building.

But underneath Robin's veneer, Alexis knew she had a spine of steel since the plane accident and why were her forearms goose pimpling right now? Oh god, she couldn't believe what she saw in front of her. Robin had begun sprouting hairs on her body especially her arms but even on her face like she had really bad shadow.

Alexis blinked her eyes. She had to be imagining things because Robin, she couldn't be…no it was impossible. After all, the good folks of PC had gotten together, lit up a bunch of torches and returned their town to those who were living.

They'd been cursed for their vigilantism and for the murders of hundreds of the undead who had their ashes buried where…Alexis couldn't remember. Since she only had been a bit player on that chapter of local history, she didn't pay much attention to what happened.

But what if they had buried the ashes of the undead beneath this very building? What if they were currently fighting for survival on evil ground? What if the undead were back and hungry for revenge?

Alexis left her thoughts and hit the liquor cabinet to get the last bottle of Vodka from a bottle which bore her family seal.

* * *

"You are dead to me…You are dead…really you are dead…You are SO dead to me…You be dead for me or I'll run and tell Carly."

Sonny mumbled all this to himself after Kate had decided she'd had enough of their retread down the memory lane of their teen romance and had bailed. She had cried in his arms when Brenda and Carly had ganged up on her in the bathroom line and one of Brenda's talons had ripped out a lock of her hair.

Now Sonny hit the booze and he went off of his medication to keep his moods on an even keel, to suppress most of his homicidal tendencies. The world had better watch out because the big, the bad, the truly awful Sonny Corinthoes was back in business.

"Max…where are you? Max…I told you not to leave my sight."

Jason popped his still perfectly coiffed head in the room.

"He's tied to a bed somewhere," he said, "Diane took him back, lassoed him up and she's basting him with tomato and basil sauce which she'll lick off his body."

Sonny sighed, thinking Max had all the luck because tomato, basil, it didn't get any better than that even if Dianne's whip treatment was included in the recipe. He did like some pain with his pleasure, he just didn't tell his exes that.

Suddenly the ground shifted again and Sonny cursed his existence. Screams tore the silence around him and Luke wearing a fedora and not much else dropped in front of him.

"Dude, get a hold of yourself," Luke said, "The worst is yet to come and our future, it depends on us."

But Luke was wrong about that as he was about many things, the key to whether or not the town had a future lay in its past…

That's what sweet and pale Georgie meant to tell them if she only had a voice.


	81. Chapter 81

Alexis could swear that the evil witch was watching her. The woman dressed in black, her face hidden by a mysterious veil had stood out like a sore thumb while Liz had been lecturing the refugees on practicing proper hygiene. Very important she preached as the disaster that had destroyed the town as they knew it continued into its second or third month.

No one could remember when it had all started. When the rainstorms had hit and the dam on top of the mountain had finally given way. Had it been the wrath of nature, the pattern of neglect or a terrorist attack? Everyone had been too busy fighting for survival to figure out why except for Alexis who didn't care a whit.

Her own life was in shambles, she hadn't showered in weeks and that free spirited waif named Felicia had upstaged her months of flirtatious banter with Mac. When Felicia had entered the room and Mac had seen her for the first time in well, months it was like no one had existed.

Alexis and her mug of espresso were quickly forgotten and she'd just walked down one of the many darkened hallways, she couldn't keep them straight and heard some moans and sighs emanating from one of the closed bedrooms.

Her coffee had gone cold and she had to struggle to keep from smashing it into the wall. She felt that funny feeling in her head just before it split into all these different personas. One that started, all hell would break loose because some of them hidden away in the darkest recesses of her mind were downright homicidal. The serial killer who currently stalked the corridors gouging out women's eyeballs would pale alongside Alexis if one of her alters took over her body.

She had to keep her shit together. She unclenched her fists as she fought for control. Her instinct had been to look for a butcher knife, a Swiss knife, an ice pick anything sharp enough to rip Felicia's heart out of her chest for messing with Mac.

Her hands trembled as she willed them not to reach for anything sharp and she forced herself back into the well lit lobby.

The sight of Franco canoodling with Sami in the corner warmed her innards as she celebrated the fact that some positive influence had finally come into her eldest daughter's life. Not like that heathen thug Jason who only turned to her to seek refuge from his tangled emotions about Sonny.

"Hey there's something creepy in the hallway," Lulu whispered, "I think I saw a ghost."

Alexis rolled her eyes. As if there were any such thing…no ghosts were easily explained away as figments of one's imagination. After all, no one stayed dead long enough in PC to become a ghost, they either came back to life including that lunatic Stavros or something or they became the undead. But since the vigilante groups with the torches led by Audrey Hardy had wiped them out, PC had been quieter at night.

"Lulu…you need to get a grip on yourself," Alexis said, "Look I know that Johnny Wonderful' is nothing better than a gold digging gigolo, a man whore in leather and I wish you'd buy a clue."

Lulu's mouth fell open. One of her hands balled into a fist.

"How can you say such a thing," she said, "You take that back."

Alexis just looked at the pitiful little girl hidden inside a nubile body. She knew that Lulu like her mother had been secretly programmed by one of the Cassadines, most likely Helena, to go catatonic when given a key phrase. Like mother, like daughter, both of them were sleepers set to go off on some destructive path if circumstances were right.

She furrowed her brow. Could one of them have been responsible for destroying the PC dam and dooming the populace to spend the rest of their days in squalor after the flood? Lulu's face looked appropriately blank most of the time and she knew her evil stepmother Helena had sworn revenge on PC more than once. She'd even taken a blood oath and that meant business. It also meant that most of the people living in PC were going to die.

That didn't concern her. She had plans for the worst, to get herself and her two…no wait three daughters out just in time. It might help if she knew where they were right now but then she couldn't bother herself with such details.

"Natasha…why do you curse this place?"

Oh god, it just had to be Luke. Alexis groaned because no one else had the balls to call her that hated name. Jerry had done it once while in the throes of passion and that struck her as odd. Because though with his smooth voice and his more than capable hands, he'd played her like putty but she hadn't told him _that _secret. Oh well, she'd figure it out when the time was right.

"Luke stop calling me that. My name is Alexis…Alexis Davis."

He just stared at her as if she were nuts. Even though he was the one with the crazy looking shock of white hair, the earrings and what now looked like a toga covering up part of his body.

"That is your real name and I only call you that to let you know that I know your family history."

She sighed.

"I'm trying to forget I ever was a Cassadine but I have all the signs."

He looked at her solemnly. Lulu had walked away so horribly embarrassed by her father's antics. She told everyone that it was all a horrible mistake, that she had really been adopted.

"You can't forget who you are," Luke said, "You should embrace it."

Alexis heard what he said but it was all she could do to suppress that part of herself right now. For the sakes of everyone in the room.

Brenda thought she'd died of boredom right before she passed out in a stupor on the floor. Carly had snoozed off nearby and the truce had lasted about an hour maybe two.

But both of them had woken up intent on going for each other's throat again. Carly learned how to fight on the mean streets of some dreadful city far away and Brenda had learned in modeling school.

"I'm going to take you out, you bitch."

Brenda yelled that at Carly as she waved one of her talons in a threatening manner. Plenty more where they came from but Carly had been packing heat too.

She grabbed one of her stiletto heels and started waving it madly, hoping to carve out a piece of Brenda's flesh.

* * *

Sami put a fresh piece of gum in her mouth as she hitched up her pants and tried to predict the winner. She'd be able to take both women out at once because she was the toughest broad in the building since Monica had gone missing again. Franco had started painting her toe nails in intricate patterns with one of his brushes. Such a gifted artist, she thought and he'd taught her so much already. Jason had taken off again and she had no idea when he'd be back. Why should she care when she had a real man now?

Brenda and Carly started circling each other, growling and Sami noticed their eyes wore a feral look. A weary Liz still wearing her filthy surgical outfit walked between them.

"Look whatever you do, don't draw blood," Liz said, "Our stash is empty and there's nothing left to transfuse."

Neither woman noticed the background swallowed up Liz again. Brenda pulled away and folded her arms.

"Okay we won't fight," she said, "How about I dare you to walk down that dark hallway by yourself?"

Carly responded snarling her lip.

"How about I double dare you?"  
Both women know that's where the killer lurked waiting for the next victim and neither wanted it to be them. Even though they knew that Sonny would buy them a nice funeral once he noticed.

"So I dared you first," Brenda said, "That means you have to walk down it."

Carly shook her head.

"No double dare means you have to go first."

They both argued back and forth as the rest of the room paid them no mind. It'd be only a matter of time until the two women killed each other and then there'd be more peace again.

* * *

Mac and Felicia kissed as no man and woman had ever kissed before as he pushed her against a wall. Her hands ran all over him aimlessly manipulating his shirt up his bare chest.

"Oh Mac…"

"Oh god Felicia my little passion flower," he murmured, "I wanted this for so long. I hungered for it, needing a real earthy woman…"

She crooned from his charming words and moved to slip off her own flowery dress. He finished doing that for her and before either knew it they were thrashing on the empty desk, as she cried out his name and his thoughts wandered to Anna.

Neither noticed the door knob slowly turned.


	82. Chapter 82

The couple stood next to the kitchen door, intertwined in the most unusual way. People coughed discreetly as they walked past them as if to alert them that they were putting on a display but Sami and Franco paid them no mind.

"Do you love me," she whispered.

He just smiled at her, his eyes slightly diabolical. Still she had landed herself the most respectable man ever. Not to mention he had so much plastic on him she didn't have to limit her spending inside the boundaries of the now flooded town.

"Darling, you are my muse, my inspiration, my reason for being an artist," he said, "Your luscious bodies and all its planes is my canvas for greatness."

She swooned when he put it that way. Why couldn't Jason ever weave words together in such elegant and succulent prose? Why did he always have to crash the scenes with twin barrels blazing, his hair frozen and his face in a permanent state of blandness?

"Oh Franco, you know what to say," she said, "I don't know how you do it."

He smiled at her.

"My dear, it comes naturally with a model like yourself," he said, "Together we'll achieve greatness."

She nearly passed out at those words but she looked across the way and saw what looked like an awfully pale young woman who appeared to fade away and then return again like a rippling mirage. Confusion seized her face.

"Georgie…is that you?"

Franco looked at her.

"Who's Georgie?"

She looked over and saw what looked like the dead girl shake her head slightly before going hush with her index finger. So Sami's brain started working and she clammed up.

"Oh…she's nobody," she said, "She's not here anymore."

Franco smiled.

"I'm sure she's not as lovely as you."

Sami nodded. That was certainly true after all. But as she looked over where Georgie had stood, she saw only empty space.

"I'm sure that she's not as sexy."

Probably not, Sami thought as she was dead. Even when she had been alive, Georgie had been a good two shoes, a drip and she'd frustrated many a guy to distraction even the guy who killed her. She'd never lived long enough to be a slut if that had even been her desire. Maxie more than made up for her younger sister's shortcoming and Sami had seen her slip away with Johnny Not So Wonderful not long ago, another name on his laundry list of lays that he set aside for the time in life when the world might be ending.

"Franco, I think I'm going to go buy myself another dress."

He stroked her face.

"Darling, none of the stores are open."

"I'll go online and shop," she said, "I just need to go borrow some wireless."

"Good…buy yourself something nice, something sexy," he said, "I have a surprise for you later after dinner."

Excitement lit up her face.

"Oh a surprise…omigod…really…is it something really pretty? Is it expensive?"

Franco didn't answer her questions but smiled mysteriously. She hugged him impulsively.

"You are a dream come true," she said, "I can't wait to get a new dress and try it on for you."

Franco purred.

"I can't wait either, my lovely muse."

* * *

Alexis watched as Franco and Sami acted all loving across the room and it warmed her frigid heart. She had finally found Sami a nice and respectable man, a talented artist who was going places fast. Not a heartless thug like Jason or one of her hand me downs like Sonny, Jax and wait who was the other one…oh yeah her caddish ex-husband Ric.

He hadn't gotten her pregnant like Sonny but he had ruined one of Alexis' favorite rugs when they cavorted on the living room floor. Oh god, it made Alexis retch when she remembered the sight of her now ex-husband and her nubile eldest daughter doing unspeakable things.

Speaking of her ex, she knew he was lurking here somewhere but if he had any sense he'd stay out of her way. Her restraining order against him still wasn't active but she could always resort to using Dianne's whip to keep him in line.

He feared the whip.

She had heard whispers that Jax might have survived the flood. Oh she'd heard that he'd rescued nearly everyone but he hadn't rested not even for a moment in between saving lives. She couldn't blame him for staying away given that his no good shrew of a trailer trash wife Carly was on the premises and had gone into her mood that Sonny and she were PC's king and queen.

Of kink, maybe but well, she and Jerry when he showed up could give them a run for the money. God she knew they could but Luke and Laura alas were untouchable.

But they weren't still together, Luke was here somewhere flashing his toga and Laura sat in her rocking chair back at Sunnybrook brushing her dolly's hair.

"Alexis…you still there…?"

She looked up to see Dianne coming towards her.

"Yes…but I might need your whip," Alexis said, "In case Ric acts the sleazoid that he is and shows his face to me."

Dianne shook her head.

"You know he's Molly's father."

Alexis sighed.

"I can't help that can I," she said, "He…he seduced me during a weak moment. God, he couldn't even get through my pregnancy without cheating on me with one of Sonny's skanky girls."

Dianne sighed.

"Okay take the whip…and the handcuffs…I might need both later since Max and I made up."

Dianne glowed when she said those magic words. Disaster had brought the leather clad dominatrix and Sonny's inept bodyguard together again.

"Okay this shouldn't take long…"

Luke swung down from the ceiling rafters and landed with a thud in front of the two women.

"It's pretty dangerous up there."

Alexis folded her arms.

"It's pretty dangerous down here."

"Natasha…not as long as I keep watch…"

She sighed in exasperation.

"Luke don't call me that," she said, "or I'll make up a name for you."

He grinned and then started climbing the wall again back into the rafters. Alexis figured he was hiding from his latest wife Tracy who hadn't been seen in a while. Dianne just looked at Alexis, her eyes sparkling.

"I can see why he goes through wives so quickly," she said, "but if he wanted to be tied to a bed and paddled, I wouldn't say no to him."

Alexis blushed slightly because she didn't know how Dianne kept her focus off of the horrible nightmarish conditions and on keeping her passion quotient high. At least she had her man back while Alexis just had bad boy Jerry who appeared and vanished at odd moments and Mac who at this moment was shuddering the walls with his ex that spoiled brat of a delusional and flaky princess Felicia.

Alice walked out of the kitchen.

"Alexis, why are you sitting around yapping instead of working at your table?"

Dianne suppressed a chuckle but Alexis didn't feel amused.

"I'm taking a break," she said, "I've worked that table nonstop for weeks maybe months. I'd be smoking some happy grass if my dealer wasn't in a coma."

Spinelli hadn't woken up from his infection with the unknown virus that had led to Liz authorizing a quarantine of the medical ward.

Alice didn't appear moved.

"Get to work now Alexis," she said, "Don't make me give you a timeout on the rack."

The, what…had she heard Alice right? Oh as if she would let herself be subjected to that? Diane looked over at her.

"Alexis you'd better do it," she said, "Alice taught me almost everything she knew and she learned from…"

Alice shot Dianne a warning glance and that shut her up leaving Alexis for not the first time wondering what the hell was going on now.

* * *

Felicia and Mac had clinched into this passionate embrace, their lips glued to one another.

"Oh my passion flower," Mac said, "I've been waiting forever for this moment."

Felicia sighed.

"Mac…you are the best."

He broke the kiss abruptly and looked at her.

"Better than Frisco?"

Felicia hedged.

"Well…"

Mac sighed.

"You don't have to answer that question," he said, "He's not here right now but I am and I've got 10 minutes before I have to dust for more fingerprints."

"Oh Mac, then let's not waste another moment…"

They grabbed each other tightly and moaned as they moved to a nearby table. Mac pushed all the files off of it and she sat on it, smiling at him.

But then the door knob began to turn as if it were opening. At first Felicia and Mac didn't notice, so intent were they on making up for lost time on the table.

"Oh god…I can't wait any longer…"

Felicia started unzipping her flowery dress as Mac kissed her. Then the door opened and they heard the creaking sound. Felicia turned around and her lips started to quiver. Mac narrowed his eyes.

"Molly?"

The young girl just looked at him solemnly holding one of her dolls.

"Where's your mother Molly?"

The girl remained mute and that gave Mac his answer. Alexis had once again forgotten she even had a youngest daughter.

"Who's this child and why is she wondering around by herself?"

The girl finally spoke.

"I'm Molly and this is my dolly."

She held it up for Felicia and the flakey has been princess looked at it puzzled.

"Molly…sweetheart…why are its eyes missing…?"

The girl smiled slightly.

"They were taken by the One."

Mac and Felicia looked at each other.

"The, what," Mac said, "Molly honey you're not making any sense."

The little girl grew impatient.

"The One…the One Who Walks Among the Dead…of course."

Mac remained lost as ever and Felicia dearly wished she hadn't left her last joint back at the hotel which had probably washed out during the flood.

Then a rush of people stormed the room.


	83. Chapter 83

"This is so lame…"

That was Kristina's first thought as she entered the party and she dared speak them out loud. Amy gave her a sharp look.

"You just got here," she said, "So how do you know?"

Kristina sighed.

"I just do…I read about a much different PC than I've seen here."

Amy snorted.

"You mean what's written on the bathroom walls at PC High?"

Kristina nodded.

"There and other places…"

Amy nodded.

"You see people do exaggerate," she said, "So it's not as exciting? How would you know anyway?"

Kristina didn't want to share that information with Amy, the town gossip. To do so would surely alter history and she remembered reading somewhere else that this could prove dangerous to the reality that she'd left behind her. Then again it's not like it could get much worse. The sorry excuse for her town had been about to be destroyed in a flood, her mother had been on trial for a murder she forgot and god, she'd felt like she had no life there.

"I read a lot."

Amy shrugged and they walked over to the punch bowl. She put a ladle in it and sniffed it with her pert nose.

"Hasn't been spiked yet," she said, "I don't know why goody two shoes Annie Logan was so freaked out about someone doing that."

"She seemed a bit worried."

Amy harrumphed.

"She's such a tease you know," she said, "first she gave Joe Kelly a perpetual case of well…frustration and if it hadn't been for his step…wait I'm not supposed to talk about that."

Kristina had read that story already.

"Then god, who can say no to Dr. Jeff Webber when he wants some closet action. If only he'd ask me to spend some time with him but since he dumped his kooky wife Heather, he's been stuck on her."

Kristina had read all about Heather and had seen her lurking around town since she'd been here. She looked more than a little crazy but not catatonic like Lulu's mother, the saintly Laura. So she stayed away from her.

Maybe she spiked the punch like she once tried to spike Diane's drink with LSD but wound up dosing herself and going on one hell of a hallucinogenic bender.

"Jeff's daughter is a nurse now."

Amy wrinkled her brows.

"Who…what daughter," she said, "I think he had a son."

Kristina caught herself remembering that Lollypop Liz didn't exist in this retro version of PC.

"Oh never mind," she said, "I think I see Bryan and Claudia…and the guy with the curly hair and spandex is…"

Amy sipped her punch.

"Oh that's Richard the exercise guru. He got really really famous but he still hides out here when life gets crazy in the fast lane."

She saw him demonstrating a series of flip flops whipping his body across the floor to the applause of the guests.

Then she saw a veiled figure dressed in black lurking and holding what looked to be a flask. She tried to see if she could recognize it. But all she saw was the silhouette of the figure set to do a dastardly deed. The figure moved closer and started to unscrew the flask to pour the contents into the punch bowl.

Just then a man dressed in a military uniform and wearing a beret over his crew cut hair leapt forward and wrestled the flask out of the woman's hand. It went flying into the air and one hand reached up to grab it before he spun around and kick boxed the figure on the floor. People started rushing over and Kristina's brows arched up.

"Coleman?"

What the hell was he doing here? She'd seen this bizarre clean cut photo of him on military recruitment fliers around town. A far cry from the shaggy, unkempt man rumored by some to be a werewolf, one of the few men that her mother had played strip pool with according to one scribble on the bathroom wall.

Luke with his curly mop and his tight pants rushed over to grab the figure after the fact but the unknown person had wrestled away from Coleman and slithered away into the darkness.

Kristina started to follow but then she looked across the room and saw Scotty Baldwin glowering at Luke and Laura who moved onto the dance floor decked in white and platform shoes.

Something was about to happen to change the party forever.

* * *

Alexis sighed because once again she remembered she had three daughters including the tramp across the room. Mac had delivered Molly back to her while Felicia tailed him, her clothes all in a tangle. Alexis rolled her eyes. God, did Mac have to be so obvious about his tryst with the fading flower child while she'd been out here slaving away at the thankless job of feeding the ungrateful masses?

Mac explained that he'd found Molly wandering around just before a crowd of people had rushed the empty office. He didn't of course explain what he and that ditzy hussy had been doing there.

"Mac, what if Molly had seen you…Felicia…I know what you were both doing."

Mac scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.

"Alexis…I couldn't help it," he said, "When I saw her, the memories just washed back of how good it was between us. She my passionate flower, I the surrogate father to her children…"

She shook her head.

"Mac, you forgot how many times she flaked out on you and her own daughters and took off without any warning."

He sighed.

"I know she didn't mean it and that I know that Frisco can't give it to her like I can."

She sighed deeper.

"Mac…honey…don't take this wrong but he gave her two kids."

He frowned at her, disturbed by her words and then he flashed her a pointed look.

"At least all her kids share the same fire."

Alexis felt as if he'd stuck a stiletto or better yet an ice pick in her heart piercing it. Now she kind of knew how Luis Alcazar had felt when she stabbed him.

"Mac how could you say that," he said, "You know my situation…and how it's not my fault."

He shook his head.

"I'm not getting into it with you Alexis," he said, "Two years of foreplay over lattes just didn't do it for me. Felicia is like…"

Alexis put up her hands.

"I don't want to hear it," she said, "Right now I just want to vomit. Excuse me…"

She walked quickly away to do just that because if she didn't, her homicidal nature might reassert itself sooner rather than later.

* * *

Lulu watched Alexis leave thinking she looked pretty steamed but then that woman always looked insane. Not catatonic like her mama but paranoid as if everyone was out to get her. She had lousy taste in men too and had never been lucky enough to find someone like Johnny Wonderful. Sure he disappeared sometimes and yes, he'd had Liz clean his pad twice a week dressed like a French Maid but she knew he loved her.

Even while she doubted him….like now, she thought not having seen him in 2 hours.

"Lulu…"

She spun her ahead around after hearing her name called.

"Lulu…"

She frowned as she recognized the voice.

"Daddy…?"

"Up here…"

She looked up and her eyes widened as she saw him up in the rafters in a toga. He must be hiding from his wife, that most horrible of all step mothers Tracy Q.

"What are you doing up there?"

Probably a stupid question but someone had to ask it.

"Keeping watch for the enemy…"

She considered that carefully.

"What enemy…the serial killer?"

He shook his head.

"Strictly amateur," he said, "I'm looking at the bigger picture here, of true evil coming into our town."

Lulu shook her head.

"Whatever…but when are we going to get out of here and go home?"

Luke didn't answer but swung to the next rafter and perched there keeping watch she supposed. Sometimes she almost understood why her mother was in a stupor most of the time.

Then she looked over and she saw him walking stiffly towards her dressed in black down to his fingernails.

"Nikolas…I thought you died or something."

He just looked straight at her, angst etched on his face as if it'd always been there.

"I just took a nap."

"Okay whatever…do you like want to get anything to eat?"

"I'm not really into food," Nikolas said, "I feel strange…something happened to me."

Lulu had no idea what that might be and she didn't care much. So Niklos walked away from her and wandered through the lobby as if he were a zombie. Not many people noticed because meals were once again being served and it looked like food was getting scarcer.

Rationing might be started soon which angered the Qs. That and the fact that the pizza companies were all under water and couldn't deliver…caused the Qs led by Tracy to decide whether or not a hostile takeover of the evacuation center would be necessary.

Nikolas walked over to a table and began stuffing food mindlessly into his mouth. People too shocked at the sight to stop him.


	84. Chapter 84

Lulu just wore a pout on her face as Nikolas ravished the food line. His hands had turned to claws highlighted by his darkened fingernails. She had known he carried deep angst under his brooding exterior even though he tried to hide it.

He didn't light her fire not like Johnny Wonderful who was lurking around her somewhere, besides he was her half-brother though she didn't see the resemblance. His mouth opened wide as he shoveled a fresh loaf of bread baked by Robin into his mouth, faster than he could even chew it.

"Nicky…what are you doing? Have you gone crazy?"

He paid her no mind as he just kept funneling the cold cutlets next down the hatchet. He chewed that and then swallowed. Lulu looked at him, wondering if he was perhaps possessed. Not that there was a shortage of demons lurking the realm of PC but which one would take up residence inside him? She just had no idea. Thank god, the killings had started even before his arrival so she didn't suspect him of that. The thought that she would even entertain the possibility horrified her.

Alexis rushed up.

"Nicky…oh god what are you doing to my food display," she said, "It took me an hour to set that up."

Nikolas looked at her, fruit juice dribbling out between his lips. But he didn't speak. Alexis though the worst. Nikolas had channeled enough of his Cassadine lineage to be the cold blooded killer stalking the halls of the refugee center. But wait, he'd just arrived right not to mention he'd been in a stone cold coma when he did so she could scratch him off her suspect list.

Not that she'd ever seriously put him there but since he came off another branch from the poison tree that she did the possibility could never be eliminated. After all how many people had she iced and could she even remember them all.

"Nickolas stop that at once…you'll get a belly ache."

He didn't even glance at his Auntie Alexis and that perturbed her because she'd always been an authority figure in his life since his mother was either gone or catatonic most of the time. He just reached for more food.

Alice walked out and when she saw the sight in front of her she reached for Dianne's whip and cracked it in the air with one flex of her wrist. Damn she'd learned that skill from somewhere, Alexis thought before remembering that there'd been rumors about Lila's private dungeon in the bowels of the Q mansion.

Just rumors of course, never proven….Lila had been such a sweet old lady after all. Sure she ruled her dynasty as its matriarch with an iron gloved fist but that didn't include kink.

Alice cracked the whip again and this time Nikolas jumped. Everyone jumped.

He looked up with hurt eyes dribbling crumbs.

Alice just held the whip in her hand prepared to use it again.

"Nikolas step away from the table…now."

He just stood frozen.

Alice cracked the whip closer this time.

"You heard me," she said, "Next time it'll be across your backside."

He backed away this time.

"Why…why do you torment me like this?"

His voice sounded so haunted to Alexis and she wondered what demon plagued her nephew now. He'd been cursed as they all had been only Nikolas wore it like no other. Maybe he was just too weak.

Alexis tried to be gentle.

"Nicky…honey…why don't you go get some rest?"

He turned towards her with slumped shoulders.

"I've had enough rest," he said, "It feels like I've been asleep for years."

Alice just shook her head.

"Sounds like you've been slacking," she said, "What you need is to be put to work in my kitchen."

She found a mop and tossed it to him. But he didn't react fast enough and it clattered at his feet.

"Pick it up and get to work swabbing the floors," she said, "I want them shining like diamonds by the time you're done."

Nikolas picked up the mop slowly and followed Alice into the kitchen. Alexis watched him go, thinking that though Alice was a slave master, the work might improve his mood.

* * *

Mac untangled Felicia from where she clung to his body.

"I have work to do," he said, "The killer is still running around loose and could strike at any moment."

Felicia pouted.

"Oh Mac…we just got back together and now you're pushing me away again."

He sighed.

"Felicia…I'm the commissioner in charge of a murder investigation," he said, "We've got a remorseless soulless killer out there who's hunting the women down like a predator and ripping out their eyeballs."

Felicia shrugged.

"Doesn't sound so bad," she said, "Not bad enough to leave me over."

He scratched his head.

"How can you say that," he said, "Over a dozen young women are dead, many more are waiting to be slaughtered."

Felicia's mouth wavered.

"I could be next," she said, "Who's going to protect me?"

Mac sobered up.

"I'll do my best Felicia but I've got to do my best to find the killer."

Felicia considered that and then she reached into her oversized purse. She pulled out a joint. Mac's eyes widened when he saw her light it up.

"Felicia what are you doing?"

She looked at him oddly.

"I'm having a toke," she said, "I'm so nervous about all that's happened and I need to chill out."

"But drugs are not the answer and marijuana's illegal," he said, "Where did you get it anyway?"

She paused.

"That nice Spinelli guy gave it to me before he got that mysterious plague thing."

Max looked quite cross.

"Felicia, I can't believe you're doing drugs. I never suspected…"

"Oh lighten up Max," she said, "I'm not high or anything, it's just to help me mellow out my rough edges."

He still didn't like it. She wondered if he'd pull out the paddle and decided she didn't mind if he did.

"Put it out Felicia."

She stuck it in her mouth and folded her arms.

"No…are you going to spank me again?"

He considered that.

"Did you know Alexis is one of his most loyal customers?"

That shocked Mac and his mouth hung open.

"I don't believe you."

"It's true…just ask her next time you see her."

Mac didn't know what to do with that information. If it was true, he might have to arrest Alexis but then he'd have to arrest Felicia too and they didn't have a jail here. Just a couple pairs of handcuffs including Dianne's fuzzy pair….and those were in use right now.

"Mac lighten up dude," Felicia said, "You're way tense."

He sighed and just walked out the door, telling her he had to dust for more fingerprints. He ran into John McBain who was supposed to be his long lost cousin or his worst enemy or something he couldn't even remember. McBain strutted like he owned the place like the rest of those refugees from Llandview which had been blown up by a volcanic eruption.

Felicia stayed there a while smoking away and caring less about danger lurking the hallways.

* * *

Johnny Wonderful looked over to where that chick named Blair stood wearing a tight dress molding to her body. Sure she was a bit older than him; she'd had a daughter named Starr whose body lay eyeless in the pantry. But she probably needed some comforting, the kind that only he could provide.

She smiled demurely at him and he sidled on over.

"What can I do for you?"

She dabbed at her eyes with a cloth.

"I'm so sad because my brilliant little Starr child has been brutally murdered."

He shook his head.

"That's such a tragedy," he said, "How did you come here?"

She sighed deeply.

"We woke up to this huge volcanic eruption that burned the sky and set the town on fire. We never knew that the tornado that triggered the earthquake last year released the underground volcano from its slumber."

Johnny Wonderful reached out to take one of her hands in his own and squeezed it.

"There was no time to evacuate," she said, "Most of the town, the weak and the timid were killed instantly, sucked into the vortex never to be seen again."

"But you survived."

She nodded.

"Starr and I came here and at first they shunned us," she said, "These low lifers from PC who should be incredibly honored that we walk among them. And poor Starr, she didn't last but five minutes here before…"

A sob escaped her lips.

"She's dead now God rest her poor little trashy soul," she said, "She betrayed me by fornicating before marriage and getting pregnant."

He squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips to kiss gently. She just closed her eyes remembering her pain.

"Opening her legs for the first boy who wanted her," she continued, "I wanted so much better for her than to be a tramp. But anyway, I loved her, hoping desperately she would change her evil sinful ways."

Johnny Wonderful just listened, his other hand sliding around her back, stroking it to soothe her pain. She leaned back and sighed.

"Oh that feels so nice," she said, "You know it's been so long…since I've been touched that way."

He took that as encouragement to continue to comfort her as darkness once again settled on the beleaguered town.


	85. Chapter 85

Kristina watched as Scott glowered on the sidelines of what had been Coleman or some version of the bar tender coming to the rescue of those at the party. He deftly knocked a flask out of the veiled woman's hands and tried to apprehend her before she slipped out of his grasp.

Then Luke breezed on over trying to act the hero when the action had already ended. Kristina had tried to follow the mystery man or woman but Scott had attracted her attention. She knew from her history that he had started out a wide eyed and idealistic young hero but fate had turned him into an embittered and vengeful villain.

She knew that he could cause some serious trouble but hadn't he mellowed in recent years until his most recent flameout? She couldn't remember or begin to keep track of the evolution of the denizens of PC that had shaped it.

Besides, she didn't really care.

Amy walked up to her, grabbing her arm.

"Did you see what just happened," she said, "I bet that was Crazy Heather it just had to be her. Who else would do such a thing?"

Kristina thought that the list of suspects even in this retro version of PC had to be quite long. There were more than enough crazy characters that would do much worse than spiking punch at a party. But Amy could be right. She'd heard rumors that Heather had returned and had made the rounds trying to sell people on the fact that she'd turned a new leaf. She'd been declared legally sane by a panel of experts and posed no threat to anyone.

But it had all been rumor and speculation hadn't it been? Surely one mousy looking brunette with spectacles couldn't be that dangerous.

"I thought I saw her did you?"

Amy looked confused.

"She'd be on the fringes if she were here," she said, "Heather works in the shadows and doesn't like to be the center of attention."

"But would she spike the punch bowl?"

Amy's eyes widened.

"Hell yeah, she was catatonic not too long ago for trying to spike Diane's drink with LSD. Not that Diane would have noticed the difference but…Heather drank it instead."

Kristina remembered reading about that on the wall.

"But how did she get out of the asylum?"

Amy shrugged.

"She got released and she's a candy striper in the hospital now. I think she works in the DNA lab."

Kristina furrowed her brow.

"That doesn't seem right."

"Well it wasn't my idea," Amy said, "but they had to put her somewhere…originally they were going to have her fill a brain surgeon slot."

Kristina looked around the room and saw that the party had resumed. Joe Kelly had started dancing with Bobbie Spencer underneath the glittering disco ball and seemed to be enjoying himself, his face less pinched than it had been earlier that day. Bryan and Claudia were beaming at each other as they usually did, not having much else to do and Laura kept telling Luke to stop following her.

"Where did Coleman go," Kristina wondered.

Amy looked confused.

"Coleman, who's Coleman…?"

"The man who stopped that person from spiking the punch…"

Amy shook her head.

"No…that was Archibald Dixon…"

Now Kristina was totally confused.

"Archibald…who?"

"Archibald Dixon…you don't know him? He's the star of the ROTC program at the PCU but he's a bit of a nerd."

Kristina frowned.

"Coleman…I mean Archibald's a nerd?"

Amy nodded.

"He likes to blow up things in his garage," she said, "just for fun. And he's got an arsenal of guns, grenades and rocket launchers stashed away too."

Kristina had no idea what Amy was talking about…it didn't sound like the Coleman she had heard and read about but then again, people changed over time. Some people changed a lot…

"It's all harmless…I mean Archibald wouldn't hurt a fly but it's a bit…odd…."

Amy shrugged and then wandered to go talk to Claudia and Laura leaving Kristina alone with another mystery to solve.

* * *

Alexis gritted her teeth. She just couldn't take it anymore. These ingrates from out of town who were clogging her meal table just drove her near the edge. One trip through the line hadn't been enough for them; they wanted to be fed again and again. They didn't even ask, they just assumed that there'd be enough food to satisfy their ravenous appetites.

The Blair Witch as her little angel Molly called her had waggled her finger and screamed at Alexis demanding that she give her two bowls of soup instead of one. Alexis refused to budge and told her there were others to serve first. She wished that the volcano that had erupted under Llandview had just swallowed up the city in a sea of flaming lava. It would make her life so much easier.

"What did I just tell you…you…ignorant peasant girl?"

Alexis blinked her eyes. Excuse me? How could this witch insult her that way? It was extremely generous for the very generous, very heroic people of PC proper to even open up their doors to people of Blair's ilk who hadn't even prepared for disaster. John McBain acted like he owned the place but at least he'd been polite when trying to get extra servings of Robin's freshly baked bread. Niki/Vickie and Jesse/Tessa were a bit confusing to follow at times but so far their reputations for homicide and mayhem hadn't followed them to PC.

As if there weren't enough killers wandering through the hallways of this building…Alexis shuddered at the thought of another remorseless criminal joining the ranks.

Blair just folded her arms.

"I demand to see who's in charge here," she said, "right this instant."

Alexis put down her ladle.

"Alice is busy in the kitchen but she's carrying a whip so you'd better quiet it down before she gets angry."

Blair snickered.

"You PC trash don't impress me."

Alexis reached under the table to where she stashed the crow bar. Her fingers caressed it but she didn't grab it. Lulu walked over just then and grabbed a bowl.

"I need to get one for Liz," she said, "She's down to skin and bones and she needs some food."

Alexis ladled her bowl of soup, forgetting about the crowbar for now. Liz had always been too skinny, resembling a coat hanger but she had morals unlike her more nubile daughter Sam. Jason walked over to where Lulu stood, his eyes not blinking.

"Where's the soup?"

Lulu sighed.

"It's on its way," she said, "Liz needs to rest and get some sustenance."

Jason shook his head.

"Liz is just too selfless. We're not worthy of a saint such as her in our midst."

Lulu took the bowl from Alexis.

"This will help but we need a couple loafs of that bread too."

That proved to be too much for Alexis. She was a kind woman too even if she never got credited for it but if she gave the loafs to Lulu, she'd have a riot on her hands. But Jason had already grabbed them in his arms and headed towards the quarantined surgical wing.

"Wait a minute…"

But she just gave up. At least if Jason doted on Lollypop Liz, he wasn't paying attention to Sam which made it easier for her to hook up with Franco. Lulu watched Jason go.

"I didn't know he still carried a torch for Liz…god it's getting harder to keep up with what's going on in PC these days."

Alexis couldn't argue with that but she had more important things to worry about here. Someone had to take care of her.

* * *

Ric looked at Skye who had just slapped him.

"Oh you are just beyond disgusting Ric," she said, "I wish I had a whip."

Ric shrugged.

"Alexis already tried that. Didn't work and besides my feelings for you are just too strong to be dimmed by the lash of a crop."

Skye shook her head.

"I only shared the boat so if you died I could carve up your sorry carcass and eat it…so I would make it to shore."

Ric made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"Oh I don't believe that Skye…I know you care for me, that you can't keep your hands off of me."

She looked revolted at the thought rather than turned on by his words but then verbal foreplay hadn't been one of his strong points.

"Oh Ric, go burn in the hottest corner of Hell…"

He sighed.

"I am burning…everyone thinks I'm the scum of the earth and it's just not true."

Skye pointed a finger at the door.

"Ric just get your sorry ass out of here," she said, "You're worse than slime."

Eddy Q walked in to the room looking at the both of them.

"Skye, is this lowlife harassing you?"

She sighed.

"I asked him to leave and he insists on staying."

Eddy Q turned to Ric flashing him a warning look.

"She said to get out of here and you'd better walk on out of here or…"

Ric got in his face with a sneer.

"Or else what…?"

Eddy Q just stared at him.

"You don't want to know," he said, "I will send you someplace so unspeakable you will never be seen again."

Ric knew that Eddy Q didn't make idle threats but he was an old man. Not the crafty and powerful tycoon that he used to be.

"You don't scare me you old geezer. You can't even stop your own daughter from trying to kill you."

Eddy Q just look at him as if he were a petulant little boy.

"You need to be taught a lesson."

Ric looked smug.

"I dare you to even try…"

Just then the sound of snarling and jaws smacking could be heard outside the door. They all turned to see a hairy beast with reddened eyes and a mouth of sharp teeth dripping with saliva.

Ric's mouth twisted in an expression of sheer horror…


	86. Chapter 86

Liz looked at Sam and wondered if anyone would ever notice her missing if she suddenly disappeared. She seethed underneath her blood drenched surgical scrubs and her grimy mask. Watching Sam flirt with this new artist, Franco while thousands of people had drowned in the flood and a hundred or so were holed up in this increasingly cramped building.

Never a moment of rest for Liz as she tirelessly carved up bodies and then stitched them back together in what had been called "meatball" surgery and what had invoked memories of the day that Nurse Audrey Wilson had brain surgery done on her with a power drill.

Of course the drill had slipped and the longtime landmark of PC had wound up with a partial lobotomy which is why the board of directors at GH didn't allow her to work anymore. Instead she supervised the candy stripers and this crazy chick Heather had just signed up. The mother of Liz's stepbrother Steven Lars who had disappeared up into an attic some years ago never to be seen again…and there were whispers that he'd been locked up there when he had a psychotic breakdown. His genetic map made him a ticking time bomb anyway and some said it was only a matter of time.

But Liz believed that she'd been spared the family curse and was as sane as she could be in a nutty world like this one. Right now, she clenched her fists at her side and bit her tongue as she watched Sami shimmy her lithe body up against Franco giggling as he painted the wall around her figure.

What had happened to Jason, Liz wondered. Oh the man who had been so devoted to her between episodes spent cavorting with that gold digging skanky tramp that had dropped him at some point during this tragic episode.

See, Liz adored Jason and worshipped the ground he blasted to bits with his twin shotguns. She didn't mind the blood, the guts, the endless violence because with her mini surgical kit, she could always sew him back together again. At least she had some value to him unlike Sami who just clung to him like Velcro until she maxed out all his plastic. Maybe that's what happened, Liz surmised, maybe Sami had exhausted all of Jason's credit cards.

What Sami needed was to be tied up and whipped until her freeloading nature was fully suppressed and she was remolded into a cog in the machine to work until she dropped without complaints or accolades. Meaning she was able to fit in Liz's shoes. But of course if she tried to do that for one minute, she'd throw a tantrum and shed that identity to run off and bum some credit off the nearest man.

Liz watched her carefully, wondering if Sami were to wander out into the hallway or be lured by a fresh line of credit or a box of cash would anyone see or even care if she was taken out by a quick blow to the head? The temple area would be best, where the bone was weakest by a woman with intimate knowledge of human anatomy including the entire skeletal structure.

She knew she was near the breaking point, by the end of the hour she'd be closer to the brink of insanity. One little push and she'd topple down an abyss so deep and impenetrable that she'd never return. Her hands ached from the hundreds of surgeries; her back throbbed from being crouched over so many helpless victims.

One more patient might just push her past the point of no return and she wouldn't be able to help herself, she just might go homicidal.

Damn Sami for being able to remain so carefree, irresponsible and so damn selfish. Liz ached to throw aside her soiled scrubs, shed her mask and do nothing more for these people. It was bad enough when she had her own town's folk to save but this crowd from that trashy glen Llandview, they just demanded she treat them first. Since when did outsiders, even the most obnoxious bunch she'd ever seen dictate what happened in PC even though most of it now existed underwater?

Blair snapped at her.

"I demand that you do an autopsy on my dear little sweet Starr," she said, "but don't leave any scars that a bikini won't cover."

Starr had once won the swim suit competition of Miss Jr. Llandview and Blair had it in her head that she'd be buried in her outfit with the tiara on her head. But Liz didn't think that would work considering that on top of having her eyes gouged out, she'd been a bit sliced and diced by the heinous and yet still anonymous killer.

"And don't embalm her because I just think that's gross."

Liz rolled her eyes. As if they could do that in such direly primitive conditions anyway but she just nodded wearily to get rid of her.

Then she turned her attention back to Sami who was canoodling with Franco and Liz clenched her hands so hard imagining herself snapping the bones in Sami's neck that she nearly broke her hands.

* * *

Alexis smiled as she watched Sami and Franco play in the corner. One less daughter to worry about, well two now that she knew Molly hadn't been too traumatized over her recent experience. As for Kristina? She hadn't seen her in a while but she knew she'd turn up at some point. She was just going through a rebellious period where she defied authority but she'd outgrow it.

Then she saw an uncouth young man, anger etched on his face stumble through the door.

"Michael?"

He just glared at her as if he wanted to kill everyone."

"Yes…where's my dad?"

Alexis almost said dead and buried until she remembered that Sonny had become the only father Michael ever knew much to his everlasting detriment. But that wasn't any of her business.

"I don't have a clue…I don't keep tabs on Sonny's every move."

"I have information on your daughter."

Alexis drew a blank at that news.

"Daughter…oh wait weren't you with Kristina?"

He nodded.

"Yes but we got separated when the great wall of water threatened to consume us. She ran off up a flight of stairs with that woman named Faith."

"Faith? Who's that?"

Once again drawing another blank but it probably meant that it wasn't important.

"Yes…she took your daughter shopping in New York and now is her best friend."

Alexis frowned.

"But I thought I was her best friend."

Michael shrugged.

"I don't really keep track but I didn't see her or Faith after that."

Alexis paused.

"Oh well…I'm sure she's fine…probably doing much better than her poor suffering mother."

Michael didn't seem to know how to respond to that and she saw his fingers twitch as if looking for something to beat up. So she walked back to the soup line and started serving bowls of it to an always never ending line of ingrates.

* * *

Brook Lynn tugged once again against the ties that kept her strapped to the bed. She'd been trying to escape from this trap for as long as she could remember. In the past day or so, she began to itch and she gazed in horror as a herd of spiders marched across her body. She'd wiggled to dislodge them but they continued onward.

She'd been singing to herself to try to keep sane while those above the basement lair where she lay prisoner knew nothing about it. Her once beautiful voice had long worn out and all she could muster was a scratchy warble.

Then her eyes bulged as she saw out of the corner, three huge black rats scrambling over towards her. Maybe they would decide to chew on the ropes that had her tied and she would break free. Did that actually happen in real life?

Then she saw a veiled figure approach her and she tried to scream.

* * *

Eddy wanted some pizza in the worst way. Not the stale pizza they'd subsisted on but freshly baked out of the oven pizza piled high with his favorite toppings. When he'd asked his trusted housekeeper Alice to make him some, she just rolled her eyes at him and lifted the hand that held a whip.

Surely she would never hit him with it. No, not after he had treated her almost like a member of his family. But she remained firm and told him he had to eat bowls of soup and crumbs of bread like everyone else. So he went outside to the lien that curled around the room and down a hallway and started flashing cash to buy himself a place closer to the front.

But no one noticed. Money had no value here. Food and water on the other hand were like gold, to be fought over to the death if necessary to possess.

Tracy walked out dripping with her jewels.

"There you are…you know it's not safe to go out among the angry peasants."

Eddy chuckled.

"Tracy, they're too busy struggling to get further up in the food line to even notice me."

"You'd better be careful," she said, "Some of these interlopers are diabolical. I just ran into some crazy blond in the hallway. She had this evil grin and called herself Tessa."

"Disasters attract all kinds."

"I know daddy but the sooner we can get the yacht fixed and get out of here the better. We can moor it next to the Haunted Star…"

Eddy sighed.

"It floated away with everything else."

Suddenly John McBain they called him ran into the room drawing his gun.

"Halt or I'll shoot….!"


	87. Chapter 87

John McBain looked so stupid standing there holding his gun on everyone. First of all he didn't look like a real cop. His hair was too bushy, he had non regulation sideburns and beard and his eyes just looked so wild. He'd just shown up with the rest of the dregs running from some erupting volcano that had blown Llandview sky high where it belonged and thought he could boss the people already here around.

What was it with all this flotsam and jetsam that led it to believe that they were so damn important? Tracy asked herself that as John trained his gun on her and her father, Eddy. Now shooting her senile old father was acceptable but even aiming a gun at her was not and where was her no good hubby Luke, wasn't he supposed to swoop in and safe her about now?

But the rafters where she'd seen him lurking in some crazy getup looked awfully deserted.

Carly wondered about that this McBain character too as she left the pantry where she'd been kept after picking the lock with her nail file and getting lost in the crowd again. She didn't know what happened to that witch Brenda and hoped that someone had just drowned her already or hung her by her talons. That tramp had called her trailer trash and thought she'd get away with it. And now this loser from the losingest town on the earth thought his out of town badge and shotgun could boss them all around? Where were the men including her ex Sonny when you needed them?

Tracy shot a withering look at Carly obviously thinking her ill suited to be in the same room as her. But Tracy was some pampered old biddie whose wrinkles were a lot more permanent than Carly's. She didn't need the old lady's help. She needed Sonny but he was probably still pining over that skank Kate or what's her name this week.

Kate had wooed him with fuzzy little warm memories that she'd concocted of some childhood they had in Brooklyn that looked totally cribbed from _West Side Story_. Carly had seen that movie too and she knew when it had been ripped off. Kate wasn't good enough to lick anyone's boots even Sonny's with the six inch heels attached.

"Halt…I will shoot."

Carly rolled her eyes. This John McBain dude was threatening Eddy Q, an old geezer of a man who no longer played with a full deck. He'd pretty much lost it after his wife died. Lila had ruled the mansion with an iron fist encased in velvet. Both figuratively but also for real since she'd lost her left hand in a tragic accident at the manor when she'd gotten it slammed in the door to her lair. The one that people whispered about but no one talked about out loud. Eddy Q might not know this but the fact that his dear sweet wife had been a closet dominatrix was one of PC's worst kept secrets.

In fact, she'd taught others how to rule by the paddle and the whip including Dianne who had built her own dungeon and it's likely that poor befuddled bodyguard Max had spent some time there.

Carly didn't know if Eddy was into the same kink as Lila or just tolerated it as she had bought most of the Q wealth into the family fold through her father's conglomerate which had generated almost imaginable wealth.

Tracy gritted her teeth at Carly.

"Well do something…"

Carly just glared at her back. Nobody bossed Carly around or ever put her in a corner…except Sonny when she'd been bad, very, very bad. But this McBain guy had pissed her off. Time for someone to take his ass out…but where was Sonny? Mooning over that damn Kate probably, her ass needed to be taken out too.

"I'm waiting…."

"Waiting for what?"

Carly didn't answer because without a man around it was really hard to make decisions on what to do. Then Sami wandered in the room, blinking her eyes at the sight. Carly saw her and whispered to the harlot who had bedded her husband.

"Hey Sami…"

Sami's eyes fluttered as she looked around her and then she saw Carly.

"What?"

"Just your pants are falling down."

Sami looked down and then reached to pull them back up. She couldn't help it, she'd lost a couple pounds since this siege had begun, yes that had to be it.

"What's going on here," she asked, "Why is he pointing a gun at everyone?"

Carly blew a tendril off of her face.

"Because he's Llandview trash that's why," she said, "We all know they're just a bunch of hoodlums there."

"Why are they here?"

Now Carly was really losing patience because Sami was as dumb as dirt.

"The volcano blew their town sky high and they're all moving here."

Sami's eyes widened.

"Oh wow…and what's going to happen to us?"

Carly sighed.

"If they get what they want, we'll all be their slaves unless we fight back."

Sami shrugged.

"If someone needs a sex slave, I might consider that."

Carly just wanted to pull the simpleton's hair out. What could men like Sonny, Jason and Jax see in her? She just didn't get it at all. Sonny was a horn dog so scratch him off the list but Jason…she didn't look at him and think he was interested in that at all. After all, he'd never wanted that from her and all men who saw Carly wanted her.

Finally Eddy spoke up again and roared to life.

"Listen are you going to shoot us or not?"

Suddenly John McBain looked confused as if he didn't know.

* * *

"Natasha where are you going…?"

Alexis rolled her eyes. She didn't need to look at the rafters to know that was Luke calling her. She wished he'd drop this whole crap about Natasha. That witch had died, her persona deeply embedded in an area of Alexis' master brain that had been shut off forever.

Never to reemerge however Luke might try to trigger her return.

"I said Natasha what are you doing," he called again; "I know you hear me."

She looked up and saw Luke dangling by his legs like he were on a trapeze.

"What do you want?"

"I want to be mayor again but I don't think enough of us will survive this to vote in the next election."

"Luke we already have a mayor…a Floyd something. Apparently I slept with him but I have no memory of it."

Luke looked at her with a smile.

"That's hardly surprising given that you forgot all about Sami including her conception."

Alexis felt her face heat up. Damn him for reminding her of that.

"Luke that's not nice."

"I'm not nice and neither are you…Natasha."

That hated name again as she clenched her fists at her side. All sharp objects out of her reach. Not that she felt like climbing up the side of the walls to ice Luke up that high. She had to be back in the soup line in five minutes or she'd feel the lash of Alice's whip on her back.

"Luke what's going on? I saw that crazy guy rush into the other room with a gun. At first I thought it was dear sweet Coleman but he's not nearly as sexy."

Luke shrugged.

"I thought I heard my wife Tracy screaming a streak a while back."

Alexis sighed feeling like collapsing on the floor and knowing no one gave a damn that she was near emotional and physical not to mention spiritual exhaustion. Why didn't people care at all about her and her personal pain? They were all so damn selfish.

"She always screams Luke mostly at you."

Luke ignored that and then his voice dropped to a whisper.

"I think that we must stop these interlopers from taking over," he said, "Before they grow too large in numbers…beginning with this McBain guy."

"You mean commit murder?"

Luke chuckled.

"Oh coming from you Natasha that's rich."

Only he knew how much so because he'd discovered what she thought had been her secrets and he knew where all the bodies were buried.

Even the ones now erupted from their graves by the flood and floating down the deserted streets.

* * *

Mac patted Molly on the head. She was such a sweet little girl, reminding him of Maxie and Georgie when they'd been that age for about five minutes. He would have added Robin to the list but she'd always been an odd creature. Her childhood had stretched forever in a world where time often broke the sound barrier.

"Now go back to the others where it's safe."

She lifted up her dolly and he saw the vacant smile, the faded nose and the…missing eyes. But he had work to do, fingerprints to dust and a killer to hunt down before it took another innocent life.

"It's never safe…Mommy told me that."

Mac sighed. Why couldn't Alexis rein in her paranoia enough to let her daughters grow up healthy and have a normal life? That's why he'd cleaved back with Felicia. Yeah she had her spacey moments and had hardly been around but when he'd been back in her arms, he'd felt an ecstasy that couldn't be drug induced.

"It'll be safe in the kitchen…"

Molly's face grew somber.

"That's the most dangerous place of all," she said, "Evil lives there…so much evil…too much to clean up before everyone will die."

Mac narrowed his eyes thinking it odd that sweet little angel Molly had gone on some morbid bent. Well he'd just have to mention it to her mother when he had a spare moment.

She left the room to return to the others and he got back to work. Then he heard the air split from another horrifying scream from the hallway.

Had the killer struck again?


	88. Chapter 88

**John Ingles (1928-2012) Rest in Peace…**

* * *

Alexis just watched those interlopers from that horrid ghetto, Llandview acted like they had just taken over and controlled everything. She kept her growing anger in check but just barely. She knew that if it amplified any more, she might unleash one of the alters from her impressive collection. Yes, it'd be horrible but it's not like it'd be her fault. She'd be totally faultless because the blame would lie squarely in front of the likes of John McBain, that dimwitted redhead Natalie and that Blair Witch character with the claws.

Hairy and rugged worked for some members of the male species. Take Colman for example, he was so hairy from his bushy eyebrows to his knuckles that he had to be part werewolf. Yes, they were supposedly all extinct after their lair had been torched by the latest crowd of deranged and poorly dressed vigilantes but maybe one of them had survived. Still with Colman, it all worked because a sexier man never existed…the odd thing with him is that you didn't look at him and think him a sexy specimen. No, it was all in his mysterious pheromones, which after a woman inhaled them quickly, transformed her into a wanton feline in heat. The slow burn inside of them and only one man had the cure. How else could Colman had sweet talked both she and Dianne into disrobing out of their oh so conservative legal attire to skimpy lingerie in nothing flat? Okay so Diane wore tight leather and Alexis had stuck to the more demure lace and silk but Colman had been a man of incredible powers.

As she thought of him, it just occurred to her that she hadn't seen him since the floods swept through PC. But she couldn't dwell on that because she was trying to build a rational thought in such dire circumstances.

John McBain had this shagginess about him but it just repulsed Alexis. She couldn't even imagine frolicking under the sheets with him plus it didn't look like he wore anything but slovenly clothing. Far from looking feral, he just looked gross, only a skank from what used to be Llandview would find his ilk appealing.

Dianne came out wearing her tight leather outfit and studded wrist bands.

"Where's my whip? Max is being very, very naughty."

Alexis gestured towards the kitchen.

"Alice has been using it on everyone…including me."

Dianne grimaced.

"I had hoped Lila had taught her the finer points," she said, "She was the true diva with a whip in her day."

Alexis really didn't want to learn more about this side of the Q matriarch than she'd discovered already. The woman had been a saint, a patron of some of the greatest charities in PC and yet…she harbored a dungeon of sorts in her basement. She had figured the woman had secrets like anyone else but an alternate life as a dominatrix that had blown her mind.

"I couldn't find my flogger either," Dianne said, "That's just so odd….and my paddle…it's missing."

Alexis couldn't be bothered by Dianne's problems, she had her own to deal with after all and no one came to ask her what they were or offered her help. She had been just so long suffering so brave for so long but if she snapped, PC would truly be torn asunder.

"Did you check the pantry?"

Dianne frowned.

"Why would I check there? That's one place I haven't been yet."

Alexis didn't feel any surprise over that. Dianne had been…busy since the flood began. While people like Alexis slaved to bring comfort and sustenance to everyone in need, others like Dianne had simply continued to engage in their sordid and often twisted hobbies.

"Why?"

Dianne bit her lip almost as if she didn't want to say anything.

"I'd like to know."

Diane sighed finally.

"I saw Felicia there with Mac and even though he was supposed to be doing something productive like dusting for prints…he was there with Felicia and they were…you don't want to know."

Alexis sighed.

"I already do…that little hippy tramp took him away from me…"

Dianne shook her head.

"He's not all that if he succumbs to the charms of the likes of that twit."

"I know and Mac…he was too nice to me…treated me with respect and took me out for coffee…when what I really needed was a bad boy…"

Dianne nodded.

"Like Jerry right?"

Alexis nodded, feeling somewhat guilty. She couldn't suppress her feelings for him even though he'd killed or tried to kill most of PC's population at some time or another. But she knew that despite his homicidal tendencies she knew that he really loved her and to be cherished so much by a psychotic sociopath was just such a turn on.

So much so she couldn't ever say no to him.

* * *

Lulu slurped the last of her soup and then wiped her face. She'd been flirting with catatonia for the past several days. Life inside this cramped, smelly, depraved building had just pushed her closer to her breaking point. She already knew that insanity ran on one side of her family and she didn't know enough about the other to ascertain whether or not she was a ticking time bomb.

Johnny had left her stranded again, disappearing to help Mac only every time he did that lately he left and reappeared with a woman. Not always the same woman either. Now she was beginning to wonder if she was woman enough to hang onto a man has sexy and vivacious as Johnny Wonderful. She saw Sami making out with that artistic dude named Franco and she felt a wave of envy lash through her at the sight.

Mac had dipped his head in the lobby and told everyone to not panic after everyone heard another scream from one of the darkened hallways. They all knew at least one remorseless serial killer stalked the hallways of the building. She thought it must be one of them because how could someone from the outside stay hidden for so long while killing with impunity? John McBain had told everyone that he'd joined forces with Mac and that his superior brain and more extensive experience on the police force would solve the case.

But most people from the PC contingent of survivors felt that life would be so much better without the Llandview filth in their midst. There were discussions in dark corners of whether the interlopers should be gathered up and then hung in public or sacrificed to the faceless serial killer.

Lulu followed John McBain as he searched the hallways for Mac until he found him standing over yet another dead nubile woman with missing eyes. He'd sent out notice that the dearly departed this time was a Llandview resident named Rachel Gannon. Cheers erupted from inside the communal area that there would be one less interloper and John McBain fired his gun several times in the air to stop the pandemonium.

Then his body stooped over, his ponied up hair spilling loosely over his face he returned to help Mac process the crime scene.

* * *

Tracy watched him go and then turned to look at her miserable father Eddy. He just needed to die already but was obviously too tough to poison, bludgeon, stab and run over with one of the cars from the estate's impressive fleet.

Ned wandered around with that trampy Skye and she wished he had better taste in women than he'd shown so far. Lois had been doing her nails earlier but had disappeared since and thankfully her spoiled brat of a daughter Brook Lynn had vanished as well.

Dillion was still on life support and Liz hadn't been optimistic about his long-term survival though nurse in training Maxie had doted on him in hopes he'd awaken from his coma.

"Tracy…what's happened to my gun?"

She looked up at Eddy who'd been rummaging through some drawers.

"I have no idea Daddy Dearest," she said, "Perhaps you left it at home."

He shook his head.

"No…I know I brought it with me to shoot looters but I can't find it now."

She rolled her eyes.

"There are far worse things than you losing your gun Daddy…besides you almost shot yourself with it."

His face grew red as he didn't want to be reminded of that.

"I need to find it…if a killer walks these halls," he said, "and in case that wild creature comes back."

She remembered that thing with the red eyes and foaming teeth that resembled a werewolf that had tried to eat them. But had been chased off.

"Daddy who will protect us if it returns…?"

She would have said her flaky husband Luke but she didn't even know where he went. Maybe Eddy had been right about sending her to the Dominican Republic to get a quickie divorce, the perfect location and only one flight of stairs away.

That might be a plan for the future but in the present it was all about struggling to survive.


	89. Chapter 89

Alexis looked down at the dead body and realized she still had the knife in her hand. Now that might look pretty bad, she thought so she put it down on the desk. She knew that she hadn't killed the woman lying in front of her with her eyes missing like the rest of them.

Seriously she'd had nothing to do with it. But she realized if anyone else wandered in here she might look guilty. So she put the knife down hastily remembering her history with relying on cutlery to solve her problems caused by men.

Speaking of which where was Jerry? He'd done the whole seductive routine luring her away from the soup table that she had manned for weeks and promising her some hot and heavy action…then he'd vanished if not in a puff of smoke, in the way he did too often. Alexis thought it was time for her to do some personal self-examination so that she'd stop being so attracted to every good looking bad boy that was within her built in radar for them. Not that Jerry was good looking, she thought him quite strange in appearance but he had the same magnetism as all the others.

She just couldn't stay away from any of them and it had cursed her life. She knew it but like a drug addict she felt powerless to stop it.

But that didn't matter right now, what did was that she was in the same location as a woman who had been brutally murdered. Not that it was someone of any importance as it was some more of that imported Llandview trash. She thought her name might be Blair but she wasn't sure. She was the mother of another victim that spoiled brat of a diva named Starr. Seriously who would saddle their child with a name like that.

PC really didn't need any more people like her. Alexis just couldn't afford to be seen standing too close to her prone body given that before this disaster happened, she'd been on trial for murder herself. If anyone saw her…they'd be after her with pitchforks and torches soon enough. No, she had to just sidle on out of her and stop being a dupe for Jerry. Maybe he killed Blair and wanted her to be found instead to get attention off of himself. There was no way she would ever let that happen to her. She had three daughters around her somewhere that needed their mama to raise them.

She heard sounds of footsteps in the hallway and she looked around for someplace to hide. The closet looked safe enough and she dove inside it just before Johnny Wonderful walked in the room with a blonde troll up who had called herself Jess. Wait a minute, had it been Tess? Alexis wasn't sure at this point. They wrapped their arms around each other tightly and kissed hungrily as if they hadn't eaten in weeks and maybe they hadn't.

"Oh Johnny…you are so…wonderful."

Jess moaned as his lips traveled down her neck.

"You got that baby," he crooned, "I'm very wonderful…it's part of my name."

Jess giggled.

"Oh you are cute…and you are oh so hot," she said, "even Tess might like you."

He broke his kissing and looked at her puzzled.

"Who's Tess?"

Jess shrugged and the strap of her top drooped down her shoulder on one side as she backed up to sit on the desk.

"Oh…she's…nobody," she said, "now what were we doing?"

Johnny moved closer to her and she wrapped her arms and legs around him drawing him for more kissing. The desk creaked as they grew more amorous.

Alexis watched the whole sickening display. She thought about poor Lulu out there who believed that Johnny Wonderful loved her…and only her. When in fact, he had canoodled with every young woman trapped in this building. Maybe she exposed him, but then she thought, no because it was really none of her business and she didn't care all that much.

She had her own life and her own problems and since no one gave a damn about her why should she care about them?

* * *

Luke jumped down from the beams where he'd been hiding out so sure that one or more of the Cassadines would show up again. He looked down and he saw Scorpio munching on some of his daughter's freshly baked bread next to Tiffany and Sean, who were catching up with Lucy and Kevin around the punch bowl.

What were all these people here? Was it by chance or were they brought here in a last ditch effort to save PC from extinction? Luke thought maybe he was having some sort of flashback though it'd been years since he'd touched acid.

Scorpio walked up to him and slung an arm around his shoulder. Luke fought the temptation to push it off not liking to be touched by guys.

"Hey bro what's up," Scorpio said, "I thought I'd check out the food here. I've been living on a fishing boat since the dam broke. Nearly starved to death…"

Luke looked at the venerable WSB agent looking lean as a whip a throwback to his younger days. His paunch a distant memory…and both Dianne and Anna sidled up to him.

"Not much…I just got back from my sabbatical to find most of PC washed away," Luke said, "I know it's a Cassadine who did it, just need to figure out which one."

Scorpio chuckled.

"Just like old times. Maybe we should check to see if Mikkos is really dead."

Luke sighed.

"I think it's safe to say this is one of the demented offspring," he said, "I've been keeping watch up in the rafters to look for anything suspicious. I spotted Helena a while back hiding behind a veil but she's harmless."

Scorpio arched a brow.

"Sure about that? I remember that she wore the pants in her marriage. She cursed you once…and it came true."

Luke remembered that but the old withered woman he'd seen trying to poison the soup bowl before being smacked around by Alice with a whip earlier didn't look as formidable as she had been back in the day.

"I'd say it was Nikolas but he's been a total drag since the Qs washed up here," Luke said, "He's spending all his time pretending to be dead in his coffin."

Anna stooped up to kiss Robert on the mouth before Holly walked out of nowhere to shove her aside and soon enough both were rolling on the floor in a violent rage over the man they both wanted. Luke and Scorpio just watched them for a moment and then returned to male bonding.

* * *

Sam scooped up some of the crumbs off the floor and slurped them down. She hadn't seen Jas in a while and wondered if he was okay. Now that she had this new artist boyfriend, she didn't think about Jason as much. Yes he'd been the love of his life only last week or month but she'd moved on and her mother approved! Alexis had finally done something right and introduced her to a man she hadn't slept with first and well, Sam had been skeptical at first but something between her and Franco had just…clicked. Just like kismet.

She couldn't believe it but love really did exist in whole different levels than she'd ever known with Jas. Now some scruffy haired loser named John McBain was trying to get in her good graces by impressing her with his investigative skills by helping Mac track down the remorseless killer that lurked among them.

But she knew that the killer had to be someone close to them…because she like started to have these visions…psychic visions….where she started to imagine herself through the eyes of the killer. Like a few minutes ago, the killer had just methodically stalked that new tramp, Blair down a dark hallway into a room and then brutally attacked her from behind…stabbing her before gouging her eyes out while humming a familiar tune…one Sam swore she recognized but from where?

Then the vision inside her head had gone black again and Sam had crumpled into a heap on the floor.


	90. Chapter 90

Kristina had spent the past couple days thinking about Archibald Dixon, the mysterious man who had popped up and saved everyone at the party from tripping on Heather's addition to the punch bowl.

Of course she knew that his real name was Coleman and in the world she'd left he looked nothing like he did here. This whole time warp or parallel universe situation was messing with her head. When Faith had abandoned her in this retro version of PC had she done it deliberately to teach her a lesson? To impart her with some wisdom? Kristina pondered that as she drank her malt at Rosie's Diner. The namesake had left to take her stepson Joe Kelly to lunch though Kristina suspected that Joe had the major hots for her. She had been much younger than his father, a fisherman who had died at sea in some mysterious fashion.

Joe had been chasing after that Annie Logan who kept her chastity belt buckled and locked at all times and kept more than just Joe on her string of men to tease and taunt and then to reject. Kristina had read all about her on the bathroom wall at PC High too. Hadn't she been framed by Heather for someone she'd killed or wait that had been Heather's mom Alice…not to be confused with the housekeeper at the Q Mansion? All this information was making Kristina's head hurt and she didn't know how to stop it.

She didn't know if she'd be spending the rest of her life here or whether she'd be finding her way back to where she came from. Was Faith even coming back for her or was this some kind of test she had to pass before she could click her heels three times and be back home?

"Hey that was some party wasn't it?"

She looked up and saw Amy sitting next to her and ordering a malt. Kristina just shrugged not knowing what else to do.

"Yeah Luke and Laura get upstaged by that whack job Heather again," Amy said, "Mind you I'm not bitter about the dynamic duo of PC but it's just that it was supposed to be me who met my prince and took the town by storm."

Kristina didn't think so. Not based on her history lessons in the PC bathroom. Amy could be living in a state of denial for all she knew and should just get on with her life.

"What about Cole…I mean Archibald Dixon?"

Amy waved her hand.

"What about him…he's always doing crazy assed deeds like that," she said, "But no one pays much attention to him. Not anybody who's anybody anyway."

Kristina heard the pique of righteousness in Amy's voice and she didn't know the story behind it and she didn't care. Something about Laura and Amy growing up together in the same household and the chatterbox always feeling she lived in her shadow.

"So what are you doing today?"

Kristina just looked at Amy blankly.

"What?"

Amy had an impish look on her face.

"What are you doing? Are you going to the disco ball?"

Kristina furrowed her brow.

"The disco what…?"

Amy snorted.

"The disco ball…only the happening event of the season," she said, "They're even going to reopen the discotheque for the occasion."

Kristina couldn't believe that. The discotheque of course had a notorious reputation back in her day but she didn't know about this time. But Amy talked like it was the grand event that would attract most everyone in PC proper.

"I don't know," she said, "I'm not into disco. It's so…."

She wanted to say passé but then that might make her sound like a snob or that she might give herself away as coming from a different time.

"Come on, it'll be a lot of fun and you can go to Tinka's boutique if you need something to wear," Amy said, "She's got lots of party dresses there."

Kristina considered it. After all, she might find herself some information there that might prove useful. At least in terms of helping her find her way back to her reality.

"Okay…I'll think about it."

Amy jumped up and down several time clapping her hands and squealing. Kristina thought it took so little to make some people happy.

* * *

Alexis looked at Mac indignantly. He had looked at her just now as if she'd done something wrong. His eyes dark and stern, his chin set and he poured himself another latte from Robin's magical machine.

"I didn't do it…you can't be serious," she said, "I didn't kill Blair what's her name...from that ghetto."

Mac's forehead wrinkled.

"I didn't say you did Alexis but you have to admit it looks awfully suspicious for you to be in the same room as her dead body."

But…but I was going to meet…oh never mind…"

"Jerry Jax again?"

Alexis couldn't hide it anymore so she nodded her head.

"Yeah but I'm a woman who's got needs Mac and if you can't help me with them because you're too busy with that wannabe hippy Felicia, I'll look elsewhere…."

He looked at her disapprovingly.

"But Jerry…really Alexis he's worse than Ric."

Alexis muttered.

"That's a bit harsh don't you think?"

Mac sighed.

"He's a known terrorist and stalker and he could be our killer."

Alexis rolled her eyes.

"Jerry didn't kill anyone Mac," she said, "I know that in my gut and it never lies and it's never wrong…"

"How about…"

Alexis threw him a look.

"Never mind…if you think I killed Blair what's her name then slap the cuffs on me and arrest me," she said, "if not then just leave me be and run back to your troll up."

Mac shook his head.

"Alexis….I thought at one time…well never mind," he said, "I have a murderer to find before it's too late."

"Then go find him or her," she said, "I've got to get back to the soup table."

She dreaded saying those words but at least it got rid of him. Really he'd turned out to be such a square. Even Sonny the drip was more exciting than Mac turned out to be. He and the tuned out Felicia deserved each other.

Looking across the room she saw Sonny and Kate canoodling. God that made her sick…him acting like some love sick puppy dog whenever that mousy brown girl was nearby. Carly and Brenda had nearly torn each other apart earlier over him and they'd been hauled off to separate padded cells. Sonny got off on all of it, Alexis knew that. She wished she could find a knife and…but her hands felt shaky at the thought and she willed them back at her sides.

She'd killed before and she'd do it again but given that there were so many people around, she'd have to be more discreet about it.

But she hadn't killed Blair what's her name or her trampy looking daughter Starr. The whole world would just have to accept that and stop blaming her either directly or through hushed whispers of everyone who showed up dead.

* * *

Carly snarled in her cage, her wrists tied to the posts but she just knew one thing. She had to free herself from her dungeon and not rest until she wrestled Sonny away from that wannabe mobster moll Brenda. After all, Carly had birthed at least one of Sonny's children which gave her a natural claim to him. She had given him up for a while but now decided she'd wanted him back.

It was horrible unfair of Mac and that arrogant John McBain the interloper from Llandview to come along and treat her like she was some sort of demented violent criminal. How dare he interfere with a woman just fighting for her man, the father of her happy child.

She looked around the room where she'd been dragged into with the door locked and already was planning an escape. But she would have to be tough and wily, more so than she'd ever shown this town before.

Brenda wouldn't know what hit her until she had her face ripped apart by Carly's talons that so far she'd kept sheathed away but no more!

Soon that witch would be getting what was coming to her and she'd pray to be lucky enough to run into the serial killer running around and gouging women's eyes out. She had it all mapped out as the veins began to pop out on her arms.

Then she looked across the room and saw a ghostly figure of a young man she recognized. The woman looked at her put her finger her mouth, as if to tell her to be quiet.

But it was too late for that.


	91. Chapter 91

Alexis felt under a microscope not only by Mac Scorpio but by that newcomer John McBain as well. He looked at her as if she was a common criminal and she bristled under the scrutiny. God the man couldn't even run a comb through his unruly hair or shave that beard off his face. He dressed like some bad rendition of a vice cop from the 1970s and she just didn't find him attractive at all. She really wished he would just go away and take his bad morning breath with him.

She knew she didn't kill Starr, or her trashy mother Blair any more than she'd killed any of the other unlucky women who'd turned up dead with their eyes missing. She'd had an alibi hadn't she, the most perfect one of all meaning that she'd been manning this soup line for the most torturous stretch of time she could ever remember. Months must have passed and they were still all stranded inside the increasingly dank and stinky community center almost at the point where they were at each other's throats. People turned up missing and only some were later found dead. No one had seen Brook Lynn in how long? Alexis couldn't even guess as she gave the warbler with the tacky hair and nails hardly any thought. Her mother Lois was the epitome of loud trash…what had Nicky seen in her after all? Alexis felt cheap whenever she thought about Nick's marriage to Lois…what did it say about her that she'd almost married the man herself?

The town's news media had called her the "Runaway Bride", a name that had stuck with her until she'd tied the knot with that cheating cad of an ex-husband of hers Ric Lansing. Nicky was classier though his wardrobe didn't often show his breeding. He hadn't frolicked on some cheap throw rug with her daughter at any rate. Though she'd been cited for lighting an open fire when she'd torched the rug after she found out about the tryst, it'd been worth it.

Now she watched as John watched her. Oh she'd do him if she had to…do him meaning that she'd frolic with him on a desk somewhere…not kill him yet everyone though the latter. She knew that few people in PC proper thought her as a sexually vibrant woman when it was much easier to label her a remorseless killer.

She was innocent and after they were all rescued from this disastrous situation, she guessed that she'd be back on trial for some murder of some person they still hadn't even named yet. Until then she'd just focus on ladling soup for the unfortunate if ungrateful masses and occasionally think about her children.

"Alexis I'm going to need to question you about Blair's death."

She looked up and rolled her eyes at Mac who toted a cup of designer coffee that had been brewed from a cappuccino machine that Robin had unearthed from one of the storage rooms. People had mobbed the counter begging for just a few drops and some fights had broken out but Robin had been patient enough to ensure that everyone had been sated at least for a while.

Alexis just gesticulated at Mac. He had been attracted to her once and they had flirted for 18 months or so over cups of coffee at the café, what they called foreplay. But then Felicia that burned out old flower child had wandered back into his life and now he'd been so taken with her, falling under her spell. She wondered if Felicia had slipped something into his food.

"Mac…honey I would think you'd be more concerned about Carly," she said, "You know she's crazy personified and she's killed people without remorse…didn't you just see she and Brenda try to rip each other apart with their talons?"

He just sighed.

"Alexis…they are just fighting over Sonny…I don't know why but that's it. They aren't involved in these mysterious deaths."

"Neither am I…I'm innocent…so I killed Luis…I may or may not have hit a person or two with my car," she said, "Okay and I might have shot someone…and forgotten about it the next day…once but I'm innocent now."

Mac shook his head.

"You'll have to tell it to the judge," he said, "I'm just here to investigate and I've put you on my list to interrogate."

She tossed up her hands, exasperated.

"Fine…as long as I have my lawyer present," she said, "If I can only find her."

She left him to just get away, to go someplace where no one would blame her just for breathing. She'd been so unjustly labeled and she was just sick and tired of it…she couldn't take it anymore. And if she weren't careful…she'd come back. Her alter Kristina…now she was for real. Some people thought she fudged and made that all up…had been the consummate actress but it had really happened. She'd swear on a stack of bibles to that.

Mac had better watch his step lest he unveil her fearful personality…the one part of her that might be capable of homicide. Now as it stood, she'd have to liquor herself up just to suppress Kristina from emerging once again.

* * *

Sami pulled up her baggy pants. She and Franco had been getting frisky until she heard Robin calling her drafting her back into service. Damn, Robin was getting to be nearly as bad as Alexis when it came to nagging her all the time. She'd been working so hard trying to organize Franco's collection of shiny plastic cards into a beautiful mosaic with her as its centerpiece. Franco had called her beautiful, unforgettable and the shimmering star of this horrendous episode of darkness in PC's history. She had blushed when he flattered her like that.

So different he turned out to be from Jason who just grunted occasionally, his facial muscles atrophying from lack of use and his tendency to cherish his twin power packing automatic pistols over her. She'd maxed out his plastic anyway and her fingers had itched to find some new cards to buy her some brand new threads…because her current ones were getting old and rank.

"Franco darling…I really need to buy myself something nice…to please you with…"

He gazed at her.

"Later baby…I promised Alice I'd buy her a new whip."

Sam's jaw dropped.

"Alice…I thought my mother's BFF Dianne was into that level of kink."

Franco's smile widened.

"Yes…but Alice has been so much the leader here that it might help her to have one of her own."

Sam didn't see the logic in that but knew that Franco was way smarter than her so she left it up to him to decide. She'd been giving that handsome edgy new detective the eye as well…but so far John McBain hadn't returned her glances. She'd have to try harder and she needed a new wardrobe to do that…clothes that molded to her nubile body…the proper pair of heels to entice him. She had to keep his options open and despite his worn out clothes she sensed he came from money.

"That's nice Franco…I need to go for a walk…to clear my head."

Franco just looked at her oddly but then he smiled again showing some pointed teeth.

"That's fine my darling…but don't wander too far," he said, "there's a murderer in our midst and this one has got any artistic style…strictly low rent and unimaginative."

Sami just looked at him.

"But the eyes…they're getting gouged out…that takes some creativity…I wonder what it means."

Franco appeared to ponder it for a moment.

"He's afraid that they will see or have seen the true essence of his character," he said, "the part of himself that he keeps hidden from all others…so he removes the eyes so they won't stare at him while he leaves."

Sam wrinkled her forehead.

"But why can't he just cover their heads…?"

Franco sighed.

"Because he also needs souvenirs of his deeds to reflect upon later…"

Sam just nodded accepting that. That made sense…she again marveled at the advance intellect of the man next to her.

* * *

Tracy looked at her ex-husband, the vagabond with the wild locks and cheap suits, Luke  
Spencer. She'd just heard by carrier pigeon that their divorce had been finalized which left her a free woman at last. She had her sights set on the young man that hung out with that skank, Sam the one who used to cavort with Jason.

She had rejoiced when Jason had been in the car wreck that though it didn't kill him as she hoped, changed his life forever. With him out of the line of succession to the Q fortune, that left more of it for her. It left her with one less relative to poison to reduce that list even further. Good fortune did shine on her once in a while.

But then looking at Johnny McBain, she thought she'd want some of that too…handsome and edgy she could imagine spending time with him. No marriage or longtime commitment…just a good time. He could be her playboy…her cabana boy…her youthful fling…yes she'd go approach him right now and they'd go off together.

She started to take those first steps and then she saw that floozy leather clad Dianne move in for the kill.


	92. Chapter 92

Alexis had never felt so disgusted in her life. Mac really thought she knew more than she was saying about the most recent spate of murders in what was left of PC? Simply because Felicia the aging flower child had gotten a vacant look on her face and was now claiming to have psychic visions?

She must be having visions all right after all the acid she'd dropped and the mushrooms she'd smoked since her arrival. She had been stoned most of the time and had spiked some brownies that Robin had tirelessly prepared and now everyone had wigged out. People were writhing on the ground as if possessed and some had stripped down naked.

PC had been reduced to its most basic elements and it didn't help that neighboring trash had wandered in from what had been llandview before a volcano leveled it.

"She's lying Mac…I can feel it…the shivers…the tingles under my skin," Felicia said, "like worms crawling beneath it."

Alexis rolled her eyes. When she smoked some happy grass she bought from Spinelli strictly for medicinal purposes sometimes he laced it with something more powerful, more mind altering and she went places far behind the bondages of earth.

"Mac don't tell me you believe her," she countered, "She's a stoner, an acid freak and she doesn't even know where her one remaining child is right now."

Felicia's eyes widened.

"What about you Alexis? Where are your girls or do you even know?"

Alexis had to pause and think about that running the list of them in her head. Sami was off making nice with that really nice charming artist and Molly was playing with her dolly somewhere…someone must be looking after her so Alexis could focus on her very hard work of tending the soup lines where wars had broken out, claws had drawn blood and hair had been pulled. Mostly because of the Llandview trash. If some of them had met up with a killer, there had to be some good news from that right? Their lives couldn't possibly mean as much as those living in PC anyway.

She looked up and saw Luke perched in the rafters still, now wearing a toga and hopefully something underneath it. He watched her and while that unnerved her a bit, she felt that they understood each other even if he called her by that hated moniker, Natasha from a whole other life she'd left behind her. The lady with the black veil…Alexis had wondered about her as she looked familiar…what was she doing now?

Jerry was nowhere to be found…how typical of him. Though he'd brought out the animalistic qualities she kept repressed in herself under her business suits, she didn't have much else to do with him when she wasn't wanting him.

Like right now when she was being interrogated by Mac…the man she'd spent a year flirting with over coffee…now the enemy. She had to minimize all references to the more problematic men in her dating history. Maybe not Jax, her good husband, a force of goodness and light in contrast to the darkness and shadows of that cad and loser, Ric. He'd disappeared again and fingers hadn't yet pointed at her over that…in fact the only one who seemed to care was Skye and she hardly counted. Alexis considered her part of the Llandview filth.

Blair and Starr had been mourned mostly by their own kind as most of the PC folks had little use for either one of them. Then they were left to rot in the pantry under tarps because there hadn't been any way to keep them chilled. The limited electricity generators they had left had to go to Liz's surgery and triage center to power the tools she used to save people's lives.

Spinelli had woken from his coma and yet the spots that dotted his skin told Liz he was still infected with the plague that threatened the lives of everyone.

Then Alexis remembered she had a daughter, the middle one named Kristina and when had she last seen her? She tried real hard to think back to her last sighting…the last words from mother to daughter but nothing came to mind. Well, Kristina had to be around here somewhere…doing something…nothing to worry about there.

Felicia still stared at her. She really wanted to smack her silly but then Mac would probably lock her up in the pantry with the dead bodies. So she kept her restless hands at her side.

She had to keep working and be strong for her girls…wherever they were…and not succumb to Felicia's bait.

"I have work to do…something you know thing about…if you'll excuse me…"

She walked back to the soup line feeling the other woman's eyes on her back. Mac had picked himself a real winner there. Even after the hell she'd put him through with her childish actions, he still went back for more…how much like a typical man.

She could just go off; smoke some more 'rooms and entertain delusions about someone else being the killer this time. Alexis had no time for her crap…or anyone's crap. Someone had to be the ultimate heroine in this crisis…the one who would get the accolades after it was over…at least maybe they'd drop the latest bogus murder charges against her in gratitude for her selflessness.

One could certainly hope.

* * *

John McBain had walked into PC's floodwaters and already felt like he owned it. After the first minute or so he already led the police department pushing Mac to the side because really…a young buck like him from Llandview was better than an old geezer who had spent too much of his life in the backwaters of PC. The few detectives still alive and investigating the murders obeyed him and followed his directions…while Mac had his hands full with the women in his life.

That murderous psychopath Alexis…who he didn't trust for a moment and that spitfire of a daughter of hers, Sami…more craziness…and then there'd been the flower child who looked like she'd spent too much time in the sun named Felicia. She'd harbored fantasies of being some sort of Aztec Princess but that couldn't be true. She was harmless…Alexis was not for he had hooked up with her now deceased sister Kristina…only it hadn't been Kristina…underneath that freaky wig and those cheesy threads.

No not at all…but better not to remember that sordid chapter of his life.

He sniffed around the room as his senses were that sharp…more so than the keenest nose of a bloodhound which some said he resembled. He saw the woman with a veil and she had a particularly odious smell. It filled the already noxious room with a stench so powerful…so evil that it could easily smother people in a flash.

He knew that smell…because he had once hooked up with them…it was all Cassadine. Alexis had that smell too but not nearly as powerful as the veiled woman who had cast him some careful glances appearing nonchalant.

She still watched him and he could make out the silhouette underneath her veil. His heart quickened…no it couldn't be here…no it just couldn't…wasn't she supposed to be dead like ten times over?

He walked over to her and his eyes boggled inside his head. His mouth fell open.

"Oh my god…no it can't be…can it? You aren't…."

His mouth wouldn't let him even speak her name out loud.

* * *

Carly broke the chains that bound her with a howl. Her eyes turned feral and she looked down at her arms in dismay. She tried to remember the last time she'd shaved them and then realized she didn't shave her arms at all. They were covered with hair, thick and unruly and her fingers had thickened and looked clubbed and her fingernails…dark claws replaced her French manicure.

"What's happening to me?"

It turned into a growl. Her body mass increased, her strength and speed superhuman and her hearing so damn acute she could hear an eyelash break.

Then she heard another growl behind her, the clinking of another chain before it snapped and a figure lunge at her from across the darkened room.

Another round of mortal combat between two of Sonny's harem members had begun.


	93. Chapter 93

John McBain just looked at Felicia who had been spouting off about some visions she'd been having lately from her newly awakened psychic abilities. But he suspected she'd just been tripping acid or smoking mushrooms and that these were delusions.

He knew that both Blair and Starr were dead, sliced up with their eyes gouged out by some remorseless killer. He also knew that few people in the community center cared about the fact that they'd been so brutally snuffed out. There was some terrible bigotry inside this building against the refugees from Llandview who had just arrived here because they had nowhere else to go. A volcano eruption was even more destructive than a flood and John suspected that the two disasters might be related…might have been caused by the same terrifying villainy.

"John…that is your name isn't it?"

He nodded impatiently at the ditzy blond in front of him who gyrated she said due to the force of her visions and whoever sent them to her, whatever divine force whether natural or not. She just had to be batty and he wondered what Mac saw in her though she looked like once she might have been kind of pretty…now she just looked washed out like she'd done too much of…something.

"John don't you hear what I'm saying? I'm having visions…visions of the past…"

He just sighed.

"Felicia…we're trying to find a killer."

"I know but how can you not see him if you don't look back in history," she said, "The very sordid history of this messed up town…Luke, Laura….the plots against them and everyone else by those most evil…"

John nodded. He'd read the history books that he and other children in Llandview had been force fed back in school…as part of the brainwashing to believe that PC proper mattered more than the little satellite of Llandview. But he'd rejected all that…he'd been the lone rebel nearly beaten up by the Buchanan brothers…or nephews when he tried to lead an insurrection against the power brokers of Llandview who he believed had cut some unholy deals with those in PC.

"Hey John I need you over here…"

John brushed a strand of hair out of his face that had come loose from his ponytail. Mac gestured him on over to where he and a PC cop were standing by a doorway next to the kitchen.

"What is it Mac?"

The commissioner sighed.

"I don't know but I think the killer was here," he said, "I found a trace of what looks like fingerprints but they're smudged."

John frowned.

"So many people have wandered around here," he said, "and I don't know how to say this so I'll be direct…they've been using these rooms as places to….conduct clandestine trysts."

Mac sighed, nodding.

"I know…my ex Alexis…well not so much my ex because we just flirted for six months over coffee but I saw her disappear several times with a very shady character named Jerry Jax…"

John frowned.

"I've heard that name before…was it his brother?"

Mac nodded.

"Yes…the young man who's been out on his surfboard bravely towing people to shore," he said, "this is the evil version of him."

John nodded gravely. He knew how that worked. Mirror images, two different sides of the same coin…brothers who looked alike, except one was evil and the other was not.

"It looks like it to me," he said, "do you think he's committing the murders?"

Mac paused and then shook his head.

"No…no I don't as much as I want to believe it to be true because he's an odious character," he said, "but the MO doesn't fit…this is a person even more diabolical…more deranged…"

John went to fetch himself a beer.

"I won't argue with that," he said, "I saw the bodies…oh god…it just tears at my soul…of Blair…and sweet, sweet little Starr… and I knew I'd never witnessed a killer like this one."

Mac waited while John dissolved into silent yet convulsive hysterics and continue to dust for fingerprints.

Felicia had wandered off to go get some more soup but Alexis slapped her hands.

"Don't touch my soup bowls," she said, "I don't know where those hands have been."

Felicia scowled but then she smiled.

"I'm waiting to buy…you know some happy grass," she said, "Spinelli's out of his coma and he seems to have survived the plague. Liz might release him from quarantine soon…"

"Really…?"

Alexis had her doubts that he'd recovered so quickly and had ceased to be contagious.

"Well…he has to wear one of those special suits…for biohazards or whatever," Felicia said, "but he'll be back in business."

Alexis felt her own relief at that because she'd been wanting…no needing some of that special grass for herself for some time now. She'd been noshing on Robin's specially baked brownies which left her feeling frisky rather than mellow…so she knew she needed something stronger.

She had been thinking of her daughters…no not Sami who she had last seen with that John McBain character who dominated the canvass all of a sudden. But Kristina and Molly…though she'd heard what sounded like a little girl singing and humming that had to be close by.

Then she saw Sonny walk up to her.

"Have you seen her?"

Irritation flooded her because she didn't know why Sonny always assumed she cared about what he did in his sorry excuse for a life.

"Seen who Sonny? What do I look like, one of the lookouts in your shady operations?"

Sonny just looked petulant.

"Alexis…you are…."

"I'm not dead to you Sonny but you'll be dead to everyone if you don't leave me alone and take your paranoid fantasies elsewhere…"

He snarled and he lost a couple inches of height…looking like the little man she knew him to be. He had built in special heels on all of his shoes to look like he were taller but she saw through it. Maybe his harem of women didn't but then he never cleaved himself to the brightest bulbs in the box when it came to women.

"Carly…I can't find her…"

Alexis frowned.

"She's locked up in one of the rooms where she belongs…she's too violent Sonny…as soon as she can behave like a mature adult…they'll untie her."

He shook his head vehemently.

"No…she's not there anymore," he said, "Someone heard a loud roar and some ripping noises and then she was gone…"

"What about Brenda? She can keep you company if Carly's run off again."

Sonny looked more perturbed.

"She's gone too…something happened to both of them…"

Alexis imagined they both realized they could do much better than the man standing in front of her. But she didn't want to get into it with him. She just wanted to focus on ladling out more soup to those who were still in line so she wouldn't feel any guilt about why she wasn't dwelling more on her missing children.

Dianne flashed her whip but Alice didn't look impressed.

"Get your ass in the kitchen," Alice said, "We need more people to help with the pizza…"

Dianne arched her brows.

"Pizza…who's making pizza…?"

Alice sighed.

"I am…Eddy Q has a yearning for the pizza…and he refuses to eat anything else."

Dianne smiled.

"I'd like to help you but I've got Max tied up in my bedroom…"

Alice frowned.

"I don't understand why you youngsters are so into tying each other up…"

Dianne put her hands on her hips.

"Oh come on…I heard about the dungeon at the Q mansion…the one that wasn't on the official blueprints."

Alice's cheeks flushed.

"Oh that…Lila swore me to secrecy. She had this need…to dominate," she said, "and though it might surprise you Edward liked that very much."

Dianne huffed.

"Nothing surprises me anymore," she said, "I'm not surprised Lila had the dungeon…we dominatrices can sense each other…almost like an unspoken language we share."

Alice looked a bit lost so Dianne left it at that. But she missed her own friend who shared her taste in tight leather suits and whips.


	94. Chapter 94

Sonny couldn't keep his women straight anymore. Being an incredibly charismatic and handsome man, he'd always had a cluster of adoring women around him…he called it his harem. But now trapped for month inside the deteriorating conditions of the community center, he wanted to jump ship.

There was Brenda and Carly two of his earlier favorites who were currently sequestered in separate quarters after nearly tearing each other apart with their manicured talons and even in Carly's case, a set of jagged teeth. Being trailer trash, she'd never been able to get them fixed. He'd been caught in the middle of their deadly feud over him and had done the only thing he could do, which was to slither away into the shadows and just watch.

Then there'd been Kate…the beloved girl of his dreams back in the projects when he'd been a scrappy young dude with a dream and who'd run with a rough crowd. They'd reunited right here in the refugee center after PC had been submerged under a deadly flood. What Sonny felt inside, were emotions that he'd believed were gone forever….he couldn't afford to be soft…he was a cough coffee importer cough CEO who had been forced to wear platform shoes since he was a teenager.

But then Kate had this secret side of her named Connie and damn, he loved that part of her that was so free spirited, so sexy almost to the point of trashiness but what her hands did to him when they caressed, grabbed hold of his body almost made him weak in the knees. He wanted both women, the nice and respectably compassionate Kate and the naughty slut that shared a body with her named Connie. What was so wrong with that? It was a man's dream after all but as it turned out, neither woman wanted to share him with the other so he had to come up with elaborate strategies to keep his liaisons with them a secret.

"Sonny…"

He sighed recognizing the voice to be Alexis, the woman he'd slept with one and yet conceived a daughter, a young girl named Kristina if he remembered correctly. But he hadn't seen her in a good while. For the most part he had pushed Alexis to the curb except when he needed her legal skills. She just wasn't his type save for that one night spent on the couch in a moment of weakness.

"What is it Alexis?"

She pointed a finger at him.

"You haven't done one thing to help out here," she said, "Alice wants to talk to you about that."

Sonny shivered because a part of him feared the leather clad whip wielding housekeeper who had worked for Lila Q and been her confidante. He'd heard the rumors from members of his harem that there had been some lurid secrets between the two but they couldn't possibly be true. Lila Q had been the most highly regarded most respectable woman in PC for decades.

"I've been busy," he said, "Keeping the peace and violence from breaking out."

Alexis folded her arms, obviously skeptical.

"I hardly think that's true Sonny," she said, "Mac does that when he's not trying to catch the killer and John McBain…"

Sonny swore and spit at the sound of the name. Alexis didn't know why and she wondered if he had a clue himself. After all these interlopers from that ghetto called Llandview had dropped by acting as if they were the most important people on the planet. But so far at least two turned up dead with their eyes ripped out, that hideous mother/daughter team of Blair and Starr. Neither were really missed even without the chaos breaking out all around them. Liz had announced that Spinelli had been awake but still segregated from the rest of the population. Sonny had heard that and hoped the young man would be back on his payroll soon…especially since he hadn't seen Jason in a while.

"John McBain is an imposter…he's not what he appears to be Alexis…he's a no good lowlife hood."

Alexis shrank back from that accusation and Sonny wondered if she had designs on the scruffy man not that it mattered to him. She tossed her head back and cackled at him.

"Are you jealous Sonny…worried that he's stolen your thunder? He's much better looking…"

Sonny threw her a glowering look, not quite along the lines of the you-are-dead-to-me look but that she wasn't to speak of McBain anymore in his presence.

"He's here to bring chaos to PC and try to take over," Sonny said, "He belongs to a rival…coffee importer firm."

Alexis just shook her head.

"Bull shit Sonny….God can't you just admit that you're a wannabe mobster who deals in drugs and murders people for a living? You make me sick."

Sonny just watched Alexis writhe in revulsion to the reality of him but it didn't move him. He had his harem after all…he didn't need some tired old embittered career woman like her that busted balls not just for a living but to fill some emptiness inside her.

Then he left her because he had work to do.

* * *

"Oh Mac…you're the best…you are so frigging awesome," Felicia rhapsodized, "how could I have ever left you like I did?"

Mac sighed.

"It wasn't just me you left…it was your girls," he said, "Maxie and Georgie…"

She looked vague for a moment, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Georgie…oh yeah where is she anyway?"

Mac just sighed again, knowing that she'd probably been tripping acid when Georgia had been brutally murdered by another serial killer. That memory just drove it in deeper that they had to find the latest remorseless killer before it was too late…too many sweet young girls had died already, left broken and eyeless in the killer's wake. Each one felt like a deliberate birdie in his face, a challenge to his role of commissioner…even though officially he'd just been replaced.

Some chick named Anna what's her name…oh yeah Robin's biological mother who'd never even bother to raise her own daughter had been handed the job. The sting of that cut deep to Mac's core but he had to push it aside because he had a killer to find.

"I know Georgie's here somewhere," Felicia said, "I can feel her presence."

Mac just wanted to shake her even as he wanted to slide his arms around and kiss her. He hadn't known he'd still harbored feelings for her until he'd seen her again dressed up like an aging flower child sure but still quite pretty.

"Felicia…I think we need to concentrate on finding the killer."

She nodded slowly.

"Yes…and I'm just the person to help you do it Mac," she said, "I'm psychically gifted remember?"

He didn't but then it'd been years since he'd seen her…since the last time she'd left her girls and him to go find herself…or Frisco he wasn't sure. At least that flaky ex of hers who was like Peter Pan in scruffy clothing hadn't shown up yet.

"Okay sure Felicia," he said, "Whatever it takes to solve these heinous crimes."

He glanced up at the rafters and saw Luke perched there still dressed in a toga and the eccentric ex mayor nodded at him. Mac just clenched his jaws and set back to work while Felicia pulled a toke out of her bra and lit up. Trailing smoke in their wake as they journeyed down a dark hallway.

* * *

Luke had been watching and waiting for a sign. He saw the mysterious woman with the dark veil and recognized her. But he hadn't made a move yet…just watched and waited. Suddenly he saw Patrick go by with a dorky looking bespectled young thing trailing him.

"But I love you Patrick truly I do," she beseeched, "Really I can give you what she can't."

Patrick kept walking and suddenly in front of them, the beast appeared with reddened eyes and sharp fangs, matched only by talons at least six inches long. The doctor just stood there confused while the beast advanced and with one swoop of its claws, tore the pitiful nurse in half.

"Sabrina…"

Patrick saw what happened and even though he'd been annoyed when she'd admitted her feelings for him like some flighty teenaged girl he didn't think she deserved the beast's wrath. Until he saw something familiar in its eyes…and on one of its clawed fingers…

A familiar looking decoder ring that had been a prized gift from another strange creature which filled him with horror.

"Robin…is that you?"


	95. Chapter 95

Kristina couldn't believe the sight in front of her. She should be used to it by now. After all, this was PC, seventies style and there was a bohemian flower child aspect to life in the town she thought she'd known. After all, Luke the town eccentric had been a dashing antihero of some type still wearing horrendous clothes but with an Afro. Who would have thought?

Laura far from being catatonic and whiling away her life at Sunnybrook was actually quite lively if somewhat of a tease dangling both Luke and a cleaner cut Scotty on a string clearly enjoying it.

Now Kristina sat at Kelly's Diner now adorned with tied dye murals on the wall and the recruitment poster with Coleman's face on it had been taken down. Laura and Amy sat together near the doorway drenched in a haze of smoke as both had lit up some happy grass as Alexis called it and were spilling their guts about the men in their life. Kristina wondered at that, according to the historical wall at PC High, Amy had been a tireless gossip, a tongue waggling nonstop until her mysterious disappearance some years ago.

But Laura seemed much closer to what had been her sister and puffed aimlessly away complaining about Luke this time.

"God…the guy really needs to change his clothes, do something with his tangled hair and like…take a shower once in a while."

Amy shrugged taking the toke from Laura.

"Grunge is in Laura…get with it," she said, "You know Luke makes you burn…why else would you bail on your own wedding and take off with him?"

Laura sighed, taking the joint back from Amy's fingers.

"Yeah well…I've definitely come to my senses," she said, "and you know I went back to Scotty because he's so…steady…he's a bit boring but there's something stable about him that Luke is utterly lacking."

Kristina just rolled her eyes after ordering her own cream soda. Laura proved to be even more of a flake when not being a vegetable to be watered than she had in more recent years. Scotty had played a much more villainous role as she recalled. She didn't remember anything nice about him actually. But there was so much more about PC retro style that she didn't understand that seemed more pressing. Like how Heather who seemed to be loony tunes in all time zones tried to spike the punch bowl at the dance…and how Coleman had saved the day before disappearing once again.

There hadn't been anything written about him on the historic wall though she'd heard whispers coming out of the catacombs that he'd had a secret past.

"Amy…you don't think Scotty will turn me away do you?"

The frosty blond bit her lip.

"I don't know Laura…it's been a while," she said, "but you know that Luke's not the loyal type. He's likely moved on already."

Laura frowned.

"He's hitting on all the secretarial pool at ELQ and he's got his boss, that ice princess Alexandra wrapped round his finger. I don't trust her at all…she flashes me these dagger looks all the time."

Amy shrugged.

"Maybe she's just jealous. She clearly wants Luke on that oak desk that Eddy Q used when he was president."

Laura pursed her lips. Kristina saw the angst that flashed across her apple blossomed cheeks. Laura had turned out to be more complicated than the innocent young thing turned reluctant heroine. After all, she'd killed a man and years later, had been shipped off to the loony bin.

"I don't know…she hangs out with this strange fellow…Scorpio I think he's called," Laura said, "Rumor is he's a secret agent of some sorts…I just think he's a sleaze."

Kristina remembered Robert as being yet another dashing if aging fixture in PC who'd abandoned his kids. But Robin hadn't been the worse for wear for not being raised by Scorpio. His brother Mac had picked up the slack and Robin had become a famous doctor who had delivered Molly after that train wreck in an impromptu C-section.

"Oh Laura…he's just wanting some action," Amy said, "That's all men want even those who save us from peril. You need to remember that…"

Kristina didn't linger long enough to see if Laura did just that…she suddenly saw some movement in the corner. A woman shimmering under the spotlight dressed like a harlot right to her lacey fingerless gloves.

"That can't be Bobbie…wasn't she supposed to be a nurse?"

But yet there was the redheaded bubbly woman that had also fallen off the edge of the town limits of PC who had appeared here.

Kristina saw the shady looks between Laura and Bobbie which didn't shock her. The historical account on the toilet stalls had detailed the animosity that existed between them. As she watched Bobbie croon and gyrate to the beat she wondered what had happened for her to keep those talents a secret…

* * *

Mac sat with Felicia who'd been caught snorting what she called a homeopathic remedy for her allergies but looked suspiciously like…oh never mind. The point was that she was back in his life, he was back under her spell and all was right in their world.

Except for the fact that they were trapped in increasingly desperate squalor in this hellacious place and that a killer ran loose. They'd just come across the lower half of Sabrina in the hallway identified though a tattoo on her thigh where inside a heart were the words, _Sabrina loves Patrick_. Oh what a messy story that must have been…because after all the doctor was a married man and Sabrina? Old enough to be his shotgun style daughter.

No time to mourn the dead nurse…time to process the crime scene and find the clues necessary to tie her with the other ill-fated young girls who wound up dead. Only Felicia pointed out the obvious right after sniffling a bit.

"Mac…she's still got her eyes."

He noted that in his pad of paper because indeed that was true. What did that mean? After all, the one trait the other dead corpses had in common was that their eyes had been gouged out.

"Maybe it's a different killer…"

Felicia tossed that one out while fiddling with the love beads around her neck.

"It's possible right?"

Mac turned all serious considering that but could they really be that unlucky? Could another remorseless psycho killer had joined the mix? He closed his eyes just at the thought. Oh God no…it was hard enough to try to solve one string of serial killings…then to have to deal with another?

"We must look for witnesses," Felicia said, "Oh Mac…it's wonderful to be working as a real team again."

He just looked at her and then down at the remains of the latest casualty. He didn't dare hope that Felicia would look at him that way again…no he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knew the moment he weakened and surrendered to his feelings for her, her ex husband Frisco Jones would pop back into the picture.

Mac knew that to be true…so he kept his own desires quiet.

* * *

Alexis just looked at Lucy as if she were crazy. The incredibly buff looking woman with her brown hair in a tight ponytail and boasting six-pack abs only slightly covered by a tank top.

"Are you mad?"

Lucy kept her perkiness by ignoring Alexis' cynicism.

"I'm not…just ask Kevin," she said, "I'm serious…I've never been anything but when it comes to this annual ritual."

"What annual ritual?"

"The Nurse's Ball of course," Lucy beamed, "It's that time of year again and this year's gala will top all others."

Alexis put a hand on her hip.

"How so…this place is no better than a sewer with the fetid smells of the unwashed not to mention the rotting corpses."

Lucy shrugged.

"I'm not concerned with such trivial nonsense," she said, "I've got a ball to plan and you're going to help me."

Alexis shook her head.

"Count me out…I need to…go find my daughters. I haven't seen them in a while."

She walked away from that crazed woman feeling slightly guilty that she'd used her children to escape an undesirable situation. But she had to look after herself because no one else gave a damn. She glanced over where Sami had been fawning over that John McBain creep. She didn't want her daughter even the slutty one to associate with ghetto trash. After all, Llandview had been wiped out by a volcano eruption for a reason.

What had happened to Franco, the painter? He'd seemed so nice, so genteel after all. Alexis just wished Sam had inherited some of her common sense and judge of character…but then again, maybe, just maybe it was time to run that DNA test after all.


	96. Chapter 96

Alexis looked over at Mac and took pity on the man she had flirted with over lattes over a two year period. Yeah, the foreplay between her and the former commissioner had been somewhat prolonged and it had left her frustrated but she still harbored some tendrils of feeling for the man.

"Mac… you know she'll leave you for him don't you?"

He wrinkled his forehead and didn't seem so sure about it. Alexis wondered if he even remembered ditching her for that pothead Felicia.

"I don't know that and neither do you," he said, "The sparks…Alexis…it's like we'd never been apart."

Yeah she'd noticed, how could she miss it when one moment he was drinking back his latte engaging in banter with her and the next…sidling up to Felicia who'd popped up in the community center wearing her faded flowery dress and even more faded flowers woven in her flowing hair.

"I love her Alexis and that'll be enough."

She wanted to slap him for being so clueless and so such a…man but she tried to be compassionate.

"Mac…honey you know as soon as Frisco shows up, she'll drop her panties for him."

She cringed at the crudity of her words but he needed to know the truth. Surely he should have realized that whenever Frisco did show up in town, Felicia birthed one of his daughters nine months later. Not that he ever wanted to stick around and do anything novel like actually raise his kids…but then Frisco he might fancy himself some hot shot WSB or whatever secret agent but he was no more than a fading Peter Pan figure.

"Why do you say that," Mac said, "I know she loves me. I just know it. She can't love that irresponsible immature bum. She just can't. I kept her house for her, I raised the girls...she's just gotta love me."

Alexis just listened feeling some pity.

"Felicia's just some hippy who fancied herself a princess or something crazy like that," she said, "She and Frisco suit each other, neither ever grew up and no one else can stand them."

Mac looked wounded.

"What about…?"

Alexis had just run out of patience. Mac was a nice guy which mean it'd never work out for the two of them but he had to get with the program.

"Where is Felicia anyway," she said, "If Frisco's in the building, they're probably alone somewhere doing something totally disgusting."

She just had to leave at that point. After all she though she just saw Jerry lurking in the shadows again but maybe it was just her imagination.

If not, she needed herself a piece of that.

* * *

Sam just hitched up her pants knowing she needed another pair but no piece of plastic that crossed her path had enough juice in it to buy her anything. All those sparkling cards that Franco had glued around her as part of his latest artistic achievement, all maxed out but then he might just be one of those starving artists after all.

Her fingers itched for some action to buy herself some threads especially since some whacko chick named Lucy just dropped out of the sky and declared herself in charge of the Nurse's Ball.

What the hell was that anyway? Some sacred tradition…? Lucy dressed in some gown wearing herself some very toned arms was trying to rouse everyone into getting involved with working on the ball but no one was biting.

She was looking for John McBain, the shaggy haired ex cop who had dropped in with what was left of Llandview's people that hadn't been torched by the volcanic eruption. He seemed dark and edgy, thus perfect for her and he had to be well heeled which meant if she sweet talked her way into some plastic, she could be the best dressed person here

But where was he? He'd been trying to solve this string of senseless murders and she'd been trying to help him.

After all when she was with Jas, they used to do that many times, go on all kinds of adventures which always ended in a blaze of violence. But then where was Jas anyway? She hadn't seen him in a while.

"Hey Sam…"

She looked up and saw Lulu walking towards her.

"Hi Lulu…what's up?"

Lulu bit her lip.

"Johnny Wonderful…he's gone again," she said, "and no one has seen him."

Sam had just seen him…flirting with Liz in between surgeries, something about wanting to see her in her French maid's costume…she didn't stay to ask what that was all about. But she decided not to share that with Lulu

"I haven't seen him…maybe he's helping find the killer."

Lulu's mouth fell open in horror.

"He can't…or else he'll wind up dead himself with his eyes ripped out…I could never live if anything happened to my boo-boo."

Sam blanched, her what but she forced a smile on her face.

"He'll be fine…whoever's doing the killing is only targeting young girls."

Lulu nodded blankly.

"Okay then…but I still worry about him…he's the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Sam wondered why Lulu was so hung up on that loser who'd come on to anything female since the flood destroyed the town. Somehow she knew Lulu would find out the truth and it wouldn't be pretty. Either she'd turn into a loose cannon like her father Luke or a catatonic like Laura.

* * *

Nikolas had lay in his coffin still as night and still hooked up on life support. He hadn't stirred at all since his arrival here off of Eddy Q's yacht. Liz checked up on him and so did Lulu but his prognosis appeared bleak.

Lucy had wondered in at one point and got in one of her new age funks saying that she sensed a powerful struggle for good and evil over his body and that vampires might be involved.

Liz had just shook her head and said they didn't exist. Patrick backed her up but Lucy wasn't shaken in her own beliefs. She knew that they did exist and they had ruled PC during its nights at one time…though they kept hidden during the daytime.

"Lucy…I assure you there are no vampires in this building."

The other woman hit the floor and did about twenty pushups before leaping back to her feet in response.

"No…I know that's not true. I know that maybe this killer who's threatening to ruin the Nurse's Ball is no mere mortal…no human would do such a thing!"

Liz just thought Lucy to be over excitable with not a rational bone in her body…if she hadn't been willing to help with the Ball even in these trying times…she wouldn't have much use for her.

But she knew there was no talking sense into someone like her so she just returned to the lobotomy that needed her attention while Lucy got on her knees and hummed some nonsensical tune to commune with the demons possessing Nikolas' inert body.


	97. Chapter 97

Alexis saw the young teenager from across the room. At first she thought that bratty little diva Starr had come back to life but no, this girl was someone else. She had long dark hair and bewitching eyes and a nubile figure.

No, it couldn't be could it? What on earth was happening all around her? First her darling Kristina and now…

"Molly?"

Her daughter no longer looked like a little girl but was now a teenager and she smiled at her.

"Hi mother…"

Alexis felt miffed at the tone of her voice. No real enthusiasm there and even though older, she still held tightly to one of her dolls.

"Darling…you look so different."

Molly sniffed.

"I've grown up mother and now I know everything including that I've got a skank for an oldest sister who's slept with all of the men you did and I can't find the other one. Where could she be or do you even know?"

Alexis didn't like Molly's eyes penetrating into her soul. It felt as if a laser had sliced through her.

"What's gotten into my good little girl?"

Molly's eyes flashed.

"I'm not so good mother…I've been very busy in fact," she said, "Has anyone seen Starr or her mother lately?"

Alexis felt a chill replace the laser.

"Molly….darling, my sweet little girl…what are you talking about?"

Her daughter just stared at her.

"Now Sabrina…that little bespecled twit….the beast got her."

Now Alexis felt totally confused. Not about Sabrina who she knew to be way immature for her age giggling over Patrick like a school girl but what was this about a beast?

"Molly what are you saying?"

Then Mac rushed on over without Felicia clinging to him for a change.

"Hi Alexis….Molly…"

The newly formed teenager smiled at him.

"Hi Uncle Mac…have you found the killer yet?"

He shook his head in frustration.

"No…and I feel like a total failure," he said, "and then that Anna rode in and took my commissioner job from me. After all I'd done for her…like raising the daughter that she and my brother abandoned."

Alexis heard the angst in his voice. After all, Mac had wound up raising all the forgotten kids of WSB agents or wannabes like Frisco and Felicia. It didn't seem to have brought him anything but a life of celibacy and heartache.

"Molly we will find the killer soon. I promise you that."

She just nodded and walked away with her doll. Mac frowned.

"Does she look…different?"

Alexis folded her arms.

"She has the same affliction as my daughter Kristina. I don't understand it. It must be a family thing. I mean if Sami aged normally wouldn't I be like 70?"

Mac didn't respond to that and she wondered if he was being tactful.

"I'm not 70 by the way Mac. I've still got it. You know I've been seeing some guy named Shawn though I think that's by default."

"I didn't know that Alexis…I've been busy with the investigation and then Felicia and I are going to renew our vows."

Alexis wanted to vomit but she forced a smile on her face.

"Oh that's…nice. I'm happy for the both of you"

She impressed herself with her acting ability because Mac looked moved by her words.

"Thanks Alexis…that means so much to me after all those lattes we shared together."

She nodded and then really wanted him to leave. She thought she saw Jerry lurking in the shadows somewhere and her loins celebrated. Oh she knew he was a bad boy but she love her a nice bad boy and not some faux one like Sonny.

"Well I'd better go find the killer Alexis, it's been nice talking with you."

She watched him go and she knew he was going back to Felicia to cavort with her. Frisco had been looking for the pothead earlier and she wondered if they would be vying for her affections in some juvenile fashion.

Not wanting to even think about that, she went back to ladling an endless line of soup bowls.

* * *

Lucy flexed her washboard abs and her muscled arms and smiled. She'd been pushed aside in some boring corner and all of a sudden the yoga mat she'd been sitting on had carried her through the floodwaters of PC and right into the midst of the action again.

She knew she'd be calling the shots soon enough. So she'd never be mayor like that Floyd loser but since PC had been pretty much washed away anyway it wouldn't matter.

"Hey Kev baby where are you anyway?"

But he didn't answer. She thought he might be dead but didn't want to think about that. She looked up and saw the talented young artist she'd been eying for a while. Someone told her his name was Franco and he'd been mopping the floor for Alice before brightening up the building by painting murals in all kinds of colors.

Many of which depicted people including some familiar faces getting tortured, their bodies writhing in pain but it broke up the monotony and seemed to make people more buoyant. She walked over to him.

"Hey that's quite pretty," she said, "You've got a lot of talent as a painter."

He just smiled at her and picked up a brush to smooth out some rough lines in a picture of what looked like a vampire gnawing on a young girl who looked familiar.

"Thank you…I'm nearly finished with this one."

Lucy studied it carefully.

"I might want you to do the walls of my house…if it's still standing and I can find it."

His smile broadened.

"I'm sure you will be just fine," he said, "the town will be restored in all its glory after the waters recede."

Lucy brightened.

"Now that I'm here I'm sure they will soon. I'm the center of everything in this town, the focal point, and the nexis that everyone surrounds. I invented the Nurses' Ball and will restore it to its former glory."

He nodded seemingly in agreement but there was an air of mystery about the man. He intrigued her…for now but she'd never had the longest of attention spans. Besides until Kevin showed up, she was unattached.

She left him walking through the crowded room, thinking of all the projects she'd get started to put the town back together and herself back on the map.

* * *

Patrick and Robin kissed in the kitchen not having seen each other for a while. Robin had been busy tirelessly cooking soup and baking bread and other tasty treats for the masses and Patrick…he'd done some operations and then disappeared for hours at a time. Robin suspected he'd tired of her and Emma already and was back on the prowl.

She'd just heard about the horrible death of Sabrina who'd been ripped apart as if by a wild animal. Somewhat different than the fates bestowed on the other women who wound up dead. She found that a bit odd.

"It's terrible about Sabrina."

Patrick shrugged.

"Yeah…sure baby," he said, "Any wine left? That last surgery left me so tense."

Robin nodded and went to go track down a flask she kept hidden just for him. He opened it and poured himself a glass.

"That hit the spot…I better head back to surgery."

She looked at him for chinks in his armor, he'd been her white knight when she thought she'd never find love again…let alone from such a unrepentant lady's man. Sure he heard whispers about him getting a slew of women pregnant but she'd just adopt all the precious bundles and raise the herself in their brownstone after the crisis ended.

"I mean Sabrina didn't just lose her eyes…which weren't so good anyway. She was in pieces…whatever attacked her…it could get us all."

Patrick placed his hands on her shoulder.

"I'm sure it's a random drive by doll face, really you should think of other things."

She got an impish look on her face.

"Like what?"

He smiled widely.

"Like the surprise I have waiting for you in one of those offices later on."

She smiled at him and kissed him on the mouth. She had a surprise waiting for him too.


	98. Chapter 98

Alexis saw Mac walking towards her and didn't welcome it. She thought that they'd shared something if not special, at least interesting and yet he'd dumped her for that faded flowerchild who dropped acid named Felicia.

The women who dropped out and gotten high, barely aware of her own daughters. She'd just figured out that her youngest, sweet Georgia had been dead for several years. But then Felicia had never been the brightest tool in the shed.

"Alexis I need to speak with you."

She kept herself emotionally detached. She had a new man in Shawn and okay, if she barely knew him at least he allowed her to forget about Jerry for a few moments.

"What is it Mac and it'd better be quick because I have more soup bowls to fill."

He looked very pensive and he had flecks of grey in his hair. He limped and wore a sling at this point.

"Have you seen Sabrina?"

Alexis thought about it. Who the hell was Sabrina? God, it was hard enough considering how life had been treating her so badly to keep up with everyone else. Every day it felt like more and more people flooded into the community center. Only very few of them actually appeared to be the people in PC that she'd known since moving there herself.

Sabrina…Sabrina…oh yeah, the bespectacled poser who only pretended to be plain and unattractive so that everyone could be fooled until the unmasking of her true beauty at the Nurse's Ball. Only since the Ball never actually happened, the poor nursing student who oozed kindness and light had never realized her beauty before…oh yeah now it came to her.

"She was torn to shreds by the beast."

Mac looked confused.

"The beast? No Alexis, the serial killer running around loose is very human."

Alexis sighed impatiently, wondering why Mac was always one step behind everyone else.

"The beast with the red eyes that's killed three people, two not worth remembering and now Sabrina."

Mac looked overwhelmed all of a sudden.

"So there are two killer among us and one's not human?"

Alexis nodded.

"It's getting awfully crowded in here when it comes to evil."

Mac rubbed the back of his neck clearly wishing for a latte.

"Very well…I'll get my investigators to dust for prints…if this beast left any behind. I need to see the bodies…"

"There's not much left Mac," Alexis said, "and I think Alice put some of it in the stew. We're almost out of food and the rationing hasn't worked."

Mac's mouth twisted.

"Surely you can't be serious…we can't start eating each other."

Alexis sighed.

"We might not have a choice…they're dead anyway…and Liz says it's perfectly safe as long as they're well cooked."

Mac didn't like it. Well no one liked it but this siege of survival of the fittest was getting quite desperate at this point.

"We're starting with the interlopers from Llandview first."

That didn't seem to suit Mac any better. But what did he expect? They needed to start limiting their numbers anyway.

"It just sounds so cold…Alexis. A side of you I've never seen before. I mean I knew you were a Cassadine but I'm stunned."

"Only by birth and I find it deeply embarrassing but sometimes to survive you have to make hard choices," she said, "I can't even remember when I last saw Kristina and Molly's all grown up now."

"What about Sam?"

Alexis chuckled.

"I don't remember her birth at all or maybe I do and it's not something I'm supposed to share with anyone…anyway it's all just ridiculous."

Mac just shook his head and Alexis thought it was at her. But who was he to do that when his current squeeze barely knew what her daughters looked like and when Frisco had shown up again five minutes ago, she'd almost been sucked under his spell.

Poor Mac, but he'd have to figure out the reality of it on his own…with another broken heart. Alexis had moved on.

* * *

Sam just felt confused. She'd been with Franco the artist working on some of his projects and he'd promised her a shiny new plastic card so she could finally buy some new threads. These jeans were baggy and just gross and her blouse stuck to her.

Then there was that McBain guy who was all shaggy and with attitude and then he just poof…vanished. She didn't know what to make of that.

But it didn't matter because as long as she could spend some plastic she was set. She hadn't seen Jason in a while either but figured he was off with Sonny somewhere doing something. Yeah he'd been a great guy and when all this started, he hadn't been able to keep his hands off of her and vice versa but she'd grown in the face of incredible adversity and maybe she'd outgrown him.

Spinelli came up to her looking somewhat dazed. He'd been cured of his virus and emerged from his coma and now walked among the rest of them.

He had this annoying redheaded twit named Ellie hanging off of him now while he'd been out there selling happy grass no doubt including to Alexis who badly needed it by now. She wondered when Spinelli had dumped Maxie but figured it none of her business.

"Spinelli…we've got to find out the truth behind the enigma," Ellie said, "I researched the recipe and I hold the key."

The young man looked smitten.

"Oh Ellie…you are so right my pumpkin…my little rose flower. I think that we will produce a much better strain when we can build a better lab."

Sami looked puzzled as she hitched up her pants.

"You mean the happy grass?"

Ellie frowned.

"Is that what you've been calling it," she said, "We need a much better brandname."

Spinelli looked contrite.

"I know my little bumblebee…my crocus flower," he said, "I will do as you ask this instant…as soon as I unload what's left."

Sami didn't know what to think of either one of them. But she didn't need anything to make her happier. She had this amazing super power inside of her, she just knew it.

But what she didn't know was that a pair of red eyes were watching her right now.


	99. Chapter 99

Lucy started every morning by doing 100 pushups, 100 pull ups and bouncing a tiny ball off of her washboard abs. She was lean, mean a dancing machine. She also liked to meddle in people's affairs and she prided herself on her organizational skills.

Like organizing the Nurse's Ball. It had once been an annual event and she knew she'd kicked ass putting it all together but since leaving PC…it'd fallen by the wayside.

Well now she was back and even though what was left of the proud city was now crammed inside the deteriorating brownstone she was determined to get it back on its feet. There'd be singing and dancing and carousing…scratch that last one. She knew she was a natural born leader and she alone could lead the disenfranchised mob out of darkness and into the light again.

Alexis just shook her head at the woman who could arch her back and touch her forehead to the floor behind her heels. She had no patience for a woman clearly on some strong stuff. But the only thing Lucy appeared to eat or drink was a smoothie that she made for herself filled with green things and some blue things. She swore by it saying it'd cleansed her system of impurities.

"So do you sing or dance?"

Alexis couldn't believe she'd been asked that question.

"Neither…people lie or gossip about all kinds of things I don't really do," she said, "Like killing people…well except for a couple times I remember but they deserved it."

Lucy didn't look too fazed. She flexed her arms and her musculature rippled. Alexis wondered if she'd drop to the floor for a 100 more and that made her own body ache.

"I need a good torch singer. I need a flamboyant dancer who knows a good rhythm. Goddess bless the nurses for trying so hard but they all lack talent."

Alexis didn't know what to say about that. She couldn't exactly disagree with Lucy.

"When you see what I'm given to work with, you can see how amazingly talented I really am…I wish Kevin appreciated it more and didn't always try to psychoanalyze me."

Alexis could relate to that.

"I wish that Mac would stop doing that with me…especially since he chose to go back to that fading floozy Felicia. And Jerry…well he's just a guilty pleasure and…"

Lucy frowned suddenly.

"Who's Jerry?"

Alexis took a deep breath.

"He's Jax brother only where Jax is a ray of sunshine, he's a figure of darkness but the sex…it's just so incredible with this kind of man."

Lucy scrunched up her face.

"Really…I wouldn't know. It's just been Kevin and me and oh, that evil persona of his that pops up now and then at the most inopportune time."

Alexis didn't know much about that. She found herself thinking about Jerry in ways that she didn't about Shawn who had been her boyfriend for…about five minutes it seemed.

"We're all going to be doomed and turn on each other if we don't have a diversion," Lucy said, "Now that I'm here to lead, we need to focus on the Nurse's Ball."

Alexis frowned.

"We barely have any nurses. They just found Sabrina torn to shreds."

"Sabrina…who's…never mind…I've got so much planning left to do and I must do it at once!"

Lucy stomped off and Alexis just watched her go. The woman was certifiably crazy…she had to be to show up here so late in the ordeal and try to take charge.

But if she thought the Nurse's Ball would take place, she was so wrong. Oh well, she was low on the soup again, the line was ever so long and she really should start looking for her daughters.

Someone might accuse her of not being a fit mother. But first she had to start on the happy grass that Spinelli had just given her.

A few tokes and she'd be ready for anything.

* * *

Patrick felt the most horrible guilt seize his gut. Robin had told him the news about Sabrina and he'd paused a moment to think while running a hand through his shock of dark brown hair.

"Sabrina? Who's Sabrina?"

Robin sighed, raising her hands to gesticulate. Her magic decoder ring glittering in the fading light.

"She's a nurse…you know the one who has a crush on you," she said, "She's cute if a bit petite and well she was off to do her long anticipated transformation into a beautiful swan."

"A what?"

Robin shook her head at Patrick who though a gorgeous plastic surgeon could be so dimwitted at times. Women flocked to him but he remained loyal and true to Robin and their sweet cherub of a daughter little Emma.

"Where is she?"

Robin grew sadly reflective.

"She died…a horrible beast came upon her and tore her to shreds."

Patrick blinked his eyes.

"You mean the serial killer?"

Robin shook her head, growing impatient.

"Not that killer…a different one without a soul. One that hides in the shadows no doubt."

Patrick ran his fingers through his glossy tresses once again.

"Oh baby nothing more will happen to us," he said, "Everything's going to be just fine."

* * *

Luke watched from where he sat in the rafters. His hair turning grey, the traces of a beard becoming more prominent as time passed. God, they were in such incredible danger and they acted as if nothing was threatening them.

He'd seen the shrouded woman in the veil and knew Helena was in their midst. She might be battier than Hell but she was also evil personified.

His beautiful Laura had come out of her catatonic state and had cleaved herself to Scott of all men. Oh the fury it aroused in Luke's marrow and he didn't know when Scotty had arrived. Old timers who had fled PC when it fell on hard economic times were just popping up like mushrooms in the darkness.

She thought it disingenuous of them to do that. He glanced over and saw Natasha talking with Lucy and the other woman just walked off.

So much he didn't understand. He saw Lulu talking to Johnny Wonderful, the man who betrayed her with every woman in the building when she wasn't paying attention.

Anna who was arguing with Mac over how to do the investigation into the gruesome killings and who should lead it.

None of them knew anything at all. The lacked his wisdom. He eyed Niklos staggering around like a zombie having spent so much time wallowing in a coffin. Tracy fighting with AJ in the corner over some stick thin girl with shaggy dark hair who was a nurse who'd been married to Lucky.

The world was just messed up and it wasn't going to get any better.


	100. Chapter 100

Luke once again pulled his annual disappearing act from the canvas. He packed up his satchel, put on his traveling threads including his beaded necklace and slipped out into the darkness away from the evacuation center.

"If my beloved Laura doesn't return to me," he said, "I shant darken the landscape of this troubled town again."

"You're really going?"

He looked behind him and saw the shimmering hazy figure of a young translucent woman with flowing blonde hair and a gown of pure white.

"Laura…is that you? You can't be dead."

The angelic figure frowned.

"No I am not her. I'm Georgie or I used to be before I was brutally murdered on a Port Charles Street, my scarf wrapped around my neck."

Luke shrugged.

"Not my problem…I'm called in to solve all the problems and I can't do that anymore. It's time for my sabbatical so I can go off and smoke some better weed."

Georgie looked perturbed but he had no time for ghosts.

"Be gone Georgie the ghost, there's no place for you here," he said, "and I must go before my ex-wife Tracy hunts me down for her next meal."

"Meal?"

Luke supposed even ghosts could look confused. But time was wasting.

"There's a horrible deranged beast of great evil lurking in that building," he said, "It eats the flesh of those who are most innocent and pure."

Georgie tilted her face.

"That's not Tracy…it's the deepest, the darkest secret of this week in PC. Next week it will be something else. Your ex-wife is innocent…at least of those murders."

Luke shook his head, unable to keep up with all of Tracy's transgressions. They had been married in name only. It's not like they ever hit the sheets. She had her own secret affairs and he suspected she'd made ample use of the secret dungeon that existed in the basement of the Q mansion.

The one that Lila had held her sessions as PC's most famous and yet unknown dominatrix.

"My ex-wife has never been innocent a day in her life. I married her for her name and her money and I never eat anything she prepares without having someone taste it first."

Georgie didn't know how to respond to that. She just kept coming and going, fading in and out. Luke lost sight of her several times.

"You need her…to see the light," Georgie said, "You are all in horrible, terrible danger and the vestiges of what remains of PC will be destroyed…"

Luke heard that but figured it wasn't his problem. The open road awaited and it was time for him to pack up and split.

Before Hell froze over…or at the very least this corner of it. After all it wouldn't be the first time.

* * *

Alexis saw them cart away what was left of that cute nurse…what's her name Sabrina or something out in a body bag. It was actually not a coroner's bag because they ran out a long time ago because of the serial killer. It was plastic wrap so they would still make out Sabrina's wretched scream before her head had been severed cleanly off her shoulders.

Mac presided over the transit of the deceased remains. He was too busy making sure that no one tampered with the evidence. Duke had shown up for some reason wearing a trench coat and his hair whipped up by generous dose of mousse.

Alexis had been wondering a lot lately about who'd fathered her oldest daughter Sam. Okay she'd remembered conceiving both Kristina and Molly but whenever she reached deep inside the recesses of her mind for memories about the night or day or whenever she'd met up with Sam's father to do the deed. So naturally anytime a man walked by, she wondered if it was this one or that one and had she just forgotten.

How could you forget something like that? She barely remembered giving birth either or the baby taken away from her. It must have been a Cassadine mind trick.

Yes it had to be. It couldn't have been a bad boy lurking in the shadows of all that was decent because she remembered those when they visited her bed or she their couch.

"Alexis…I heard you were serving some magical soup."

She smiled at Duke.

"I don't know if I'd call it that. Robin made it and she's good at whipping up all kinds of tasty food."

Alexis could afford to be generous with her praise, being on a good dose of the happy grass right now. She looked over and saw a bush wiggling.

Ellie popped out of it. Who the hell was Ellie? Where did these young skinny girls with no curves all come from? You'd think the flood would have wiped out most of them if not the serial killer. Oh, now she had to push against her alter Kristina who was making her think evil thoughts about Ellie needing to be the serial killer's next eyeless victim. She forced a smile on her face instead.

"I think that she's an angel in this crisis. We are all so blessed to have her in our midst."

Duke seemed satisfied with that and Alexis narrowed her eyes checking him out. Could he possibly be the one? Did she do a DNA swap with him?

God, she'd never figure this out at the rate she was going. Why did she care anyway? It's not like Sam got any genes from her side of the family so clearly being a dimwitted slovenly hussy.

Perhaps some things were best not remembered.

* * *

Lulu had a memory flash. She'd been frozen like an ice cube only with a tiara on her blonde head inside a room on an island far, far away.

But that's all she remembered. She didn't remember the man with the mask, the man who looked like the devil himself brought back to life. She caught the sight of her half-brother Nikolas trying to find his coffin which had been used for a real corpse. He looked so pale and the contrast with his jet black hair and his deeply etched tattoos made him seem unworldly.

"Oh my brother…he's so deeply troubled and I can't help him."

Johnny Wonderful had fallen off the ledge into the swirling water and hadn't been seen since except his pompadour hairstyle floating down the street but this Dante guy, he seemed cool in a more rebellious way. It wouldn't be long before she said, Johnny Who.

Sonny the coffee (cough) importer wandered around mumbling about either Carly or Brenda Lulu couldn't make out which. But that had been followed by him chanting, "You are dead to me".

Would it turn out to be prophecy when so many people were already dropping like flies?


	101. Chapter 101

Sami sat down at the table spooning her latest bowl of soup into her mouth. Her mother, Alexis had been selflessly standing in the soup line serving up endless bowls to the refugees who'd been living in this fetid squalor of this makeshift rescue center. For god knows how long but it felt like forever, that they'd been here awaiting rescue that might never come.

Anyway, her mama had been reminding her for the umpteenth time of how great a mother she'd proven to be, how self-sacrificing, how nurturing, how protective and Sam was damn lucky to have someone like her. So were her other daughters…Molly and…and…well the name would come to her soon enough.

Sam wondered how Alexis had known she was her mama out of all the brown haired pouty lipped girls out there. Not that a DNA test had ever been done to make sure…but then again they never seemed to amount to much. The only thing a DNA test told anyone was that the person who couldn't be a child's mother or father. There was a whole black market at general hospital on swapping DNA test results for one that were much more palatable to the one paying for it. Even more lucrative was the market for blackmailing deep pockets over tampered DNA tests.

There was no excuse for being poor in PC.

Britta sidled up to the table holding her bulging belly. She'd shocked everyone by shouting from the soup line that she'd been spending time with Dr. Patrick in the biblical sense and had been impregnated with his bay. Due to give birth any day, she'd been trying to rope in Patrick to ditch Robin and marry her.

Sabina had tried the same but had wind up with her head separated from her body and tossed aside, for her efforts. But the young nursing student had been weak, simpering and pathetic. Britta was a strong independent female doctor and thus more able to rope him a man like him.

Sam scratched her face and looked over at Britta.

"When's your baby due? And what's your name again?"

The brunette with the big bump up front straightened up regally.

"I'm Britta. I'm very special to Patrick and I'm having his baby…very soon."

Sami shrugged.

"Oh…I have a boyfriend too. His name is Franco and he's a very talented artist."

Britta frowned.

"I don't know him. Is he here?"

Sami nodded.

"He's working on a special artwork. I think he's got a special workshop in the basement. But he told me not to go down there because he needs his peace and quiet for his muse."

Britta pressed her lips together.

"I'm Patrick's muse. I'm everything he needs. I'm the mother of his child."

Sami cleared her throat.

"I thought he had an adorable cherub of a daughter named Emma…he and Robin."

Britta glowered.

"He does…she's just a spoiled little brat. Spawn of the devil himself when he came to PC and impregnated Robin."

Sami's mouth dropped. She'd heard some crazy stories but this one? No she hadn't heard about the devil child.

"Wow…that sucks."

Britta just smacked her lips together.

"I will be having the one, the only, the true child of Patrick and I will rock his world."

* * *

Morgan showed up with his skateboard and a trailer park trash girl named Kiki who wore giant hoop earrings and stiletto heels to show off the parts of her legs not hidden by her mini skirt. They'd walked inside to proclaim their eternal love to everyone inside but…Morgan had to turn his back when he dropped in on Carly who was still chained to a wall.

He returned and noticed that Kiki had disappeared. Then the blood curdling scream followed and Mac and Felicia still wearing her faded flower child dress traced it to a hallway on the other side of the building.

They found Kiki lying on her back, her eyes fixated on the ceiling. Or they would have been if she had any eyes at all. Like the other poor young women, they'd been ripped out of her head.

"Omigod!"

Mac looked at Felicia who'd reached in her fringed bag for some happy grass so she could smoke herself into serenity and calmness amid the brutal violence of the world. She lit up and took a puff, inhaling it fully.

"Felicia honey is that necessary?"

She looked at Mac.

"Of course honey. I've been working so hard at helping you solve these killings and trying to help Maxie and then there's Georgie…"

Mac sighed.

"Georgie's dead…didn't you know that Felicia?"

Her lips quivered as she inhaled again on the joint.

"Of course I did Mac. I'm her mother after all," she said, "So who's this girl anyway?"

Mac knelt over to look for clues but didn't find much.

"She's just some girl that wandered in with Morgan," he said, "don't know much about her."

Felicia sniffed.

"She's not part of that ghetto trash from that place…you know the one that got blown up by the volcano…"

Mac nodded gravely.

"You mean Llandview? I don't know about that. I just know I need to find myself a killer before it's too late."

* * *

Alexis ran into Sami who was talking to that Britta chick. Now Alexis had a radar for members of her own twisted, sordid clan and she just knew Britta was definitely a leaf from a particularly diseased branch of that same tree.

In idle moments just after taking some happy grass, she thought that maybe Sami wasn't her daughter after all. No, it made total sense that her believing Sami to be her daughter must just be some terrible mistake. After all the two of them had little or nothing in common. Sami was not nearly as smart, not nearly as stylish in her clothing and she just looked trashy. Alexis certainly hadn't acted so slutty having only had sex maybe five times in her life, getting pregnant during three of those trysts.

Looking at Britta…maybe just maybe she was looking at her true daughter. She saw Britta get up and walk away and Sami look towards her.

"Hi Mom."

"Hi dear…I was just talking to that nice man Franco," Alexis said, "he's in his workshop in the basement but will be up soon to mop the floors for Alice."

Sami frowned.

"Big Alice was mean to him earlier. She threatened to crack the whip."

"Not Dianne's leather one?"

Sami shook her head.

"No this was real… she's really mean."

Alexis sighed.

"Alice is a very wise woman," she said, "You should be nice to her…but I don't know why she'd want to harm dear sweet Franco."

Sam stood up and hitched up her pants.

"I don't know either…but there's a lot I don't know. You know I probably should have asked this question earlier Mom…but who's my daddy?"

Alexis just froze, completely and utterly traumatized by the question. How on earth could her daughter be so damn selfish to ask her after everything she'd done for her as her mom?


	102. Chapter 102

Sami felt awfully confused as she pulled up her baggy pants inside the sweltering hallway of the evacuation center. The flood had been filling the streets of what used to be PC with raw sewage and rotting bodies including those that had mysteriously disappeared during the last three mob wars. The flies were attracted by the stench, and yet no rescue in sight.

They were stuck here forever so it seemed. Sami could deal with that as long as she had a plastic card in her hand and some new threads to wear. She'd drained Jason dry of all his money including that stashed away in the Cayman Islands account. Then she remembered she hadn't seen the mobster with the unflappable hair and packing twin guns, not in a while. Oh yeah, he went up a staircase and probably was in Europe or someplace exotic doing a job for Sonny.

But that's not what confused her. What had driven her nearly to a breakdown had been when she looked for Franco and thought she found him. Yet when he turned around, he had this shock of dyed yellow hair and frumpy clothing.

"Todd Manning…"

"Excuse me? My name is Franco and I've been looking for you doll face all over the building," he said, "You know I heard there've been some murders."

She nodded, flipping her hair back with one hand.

"I know…I've been working with the cops like Mac and Anna right there trying to solve them," she said, "I think it's definitely a guy…someone with an intense hatred of young woman."

Franco blinked his eyes, thinking her brilliant of course. Sami was the smartest woman in all of PC…well at least what was left of it.

"That might be true," he said, "but do you think you'll solve the case soon?"

Sami thought real hard.

"I don't know…I was working on getting prints off of the decapitation of that poor nursing student…Sabrina what's her name…the one that's always wearing glasses and mooning after Robin's husband…"

"She was separated from her body and not just her eyes?"

Sami nodded again, more gravely this time.

"Mac thinks it's the same killer. He says he's just changing his MO to throw us all of but we're too smart for him."

Franco smiled.

"I think you're way smarter than anyone here. You amaze me with your brilliance…"

She frowned.

"I just can't seem to find John McBain…I mean there's a guy wandering around who looks just like him…only he's got a stethoscope. He was assisting Liz on a lobotomy earlier."

"You mean Silas…he's been here the whole time. Maybe you just missed him."

Sami's forehead wrinkled.

"Maybe…"

Franco pulled out a plastic shiny card and hung it just over Sami's head. She responded as if she'd been one of Pavlov's pooches.

"Is that for me? Me? Me?"

She got up on her tippy toes and then jumped higher for it but Franco kept it just out of reach. Finally he dropped it and she grabbed at it with both hands.

"Yay…now I can buy that sparkly dress that's online," she said, "In case we ever get rescued."

Franco looked cryptic.

"Oh rescue is coming…in fact very soon there will be a savior among us."

Sami tilted her face.

"Who?"

"I can't say but it'll surprise you."

She sighed.

"Nothing surprises me except if Mama Alexis will ever tell me who my daddy is," she said, "She doesn't seem to know much about him or she won't tell me."

"Maybe there's not much to tell," he said, "maybe it's all an illusion. Maybe Sami you were born in a test tube."

She wrinkled her forehead.

"Oh how gross. No, someone is my daddy and I know he's dashing and handsome like a prince. If my mom wouldn't be such a meanie and would tell me who he is…then I might feel better."

* * *

Alexis stepped out of the soup line and poured herself a shot from the hidden stash of whisky in the cupboard. She'd seen Alice hitting it earlier and if she ever needed a drink, she needed it right now. Sami had pestered her AGAIN about the identity of her wayward daddy. Alexis had always meant to tell her once she remembered she'd even had a daughter back in high school but…well she put it off. The truth was she didn't know who the hell had sired her eldest daughter. It could be any drunken frat boy who wandered through the New Hampshire town where she went to boarding school and who joined her in the back seat of his car.

Her cheeks flushed because she'd been such a good girl up to that night. Anything to avoid ticking off Miklos and the evil stepmother Helena. So she'd worn the tightest dress she had which wasn't so tight and went out to get rip roaring drunk in the nearest bar.

So she had sex with some guy in his car and then got knocked up. The details got real fuzzy after that…then she remembers she had an older daughter…then Sam showed up…or vice versa she couldn't remember now.

Oh why did she have to think about it now anyway? She had better things to deal with…or worse depending on how she viewed her murder trial which had been postponed by the flood for how long now?

She drank a couple shots down, wondered where Kristina had run off to and when was the last time she saw Molly.

Jerry…now that she could remember. She sensed his presence, a hint of scandal, danger and great sex. Now that she could remember even if she'd forgotten the night she'd conceived Sami. She shivered hoping that her favorite bad boy would show up soon.

* * *

Anna grew intensely annoyed at Mac. God, she couldn't stand him sometimes. He really wasn't the more intelligent Scorpio after all. Not the handsomest either. Duke was running around but she only pretended to care about him. Her little flirtation with Luke had been interrupted by that silly Laura who'd come suddenly out of her catatonic state.

Then Scotty Baldwin wanted to run for DA to be a thorn in her side which in some cases could lead to really some hot between the sheets action but she just found him too sleazy…almost as much as she found Duke.

Damn the killer was kicking their butts. At least a dozen young women left dead, their eyes gouged out as if the killer were trying to mess with the heads of those hunting him or her. It had to be a guy, Anna had her eye on the nerdy Spinelli guy who had been passing out the happy grass earlier.

She knew he had something to do with it, she just had to prove it. Yes, he'd allegedly been in a coma for the past two months until waking up recently…but it had to be a ruse.

If she used her detective skills, she knew she could nail him to the wall on the homicides, but she had to come up with a perfect plan.

Then off to the side she saw Lulu signaling to her. What was going on now?


End file.
